Ad blocker for Android Phones?

Forums › Android › Ad blocker for Android Phones?

1 | 2

apm45

63 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 23

#2435757 10-Mar-2020 15:55

Thanks, have installed Blokada today - 304 ads blocked in an hour of sporadic use.
I used to have my phone rooted, but some apps don't accept that, like bank apps for instance. Also work security policy means I couldn't access work emails from my phone when rooted, so this is exactly what I was looking for.

rscole86

5000 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 462

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2435786 10-Mar-2020 16:20

timmmay:
muppet:

I use a seperate app called NetGuard and it has a DNS filter as well as more advanced firewalling filters

Are they both DNS based ad blockers that use a VPN? Does it seem to affect battery life much, and are they pretty reliable?

I also use netguard, however I download it from GitHub, as I don't think the play store version supports ad blocking.
I've not seen a great effect on battery life, but as it uses the VPN service, Android sees it as a wifi connection for it's data usage logging. Also you cannot see what data individual apps are using.

Yes it's a DNS based service, with rules you can download.

vexxxboy

4342 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2081

#2435790 10-Mar-2020 16:29

you could try the Brave browser, it blocks adds and website trackers and gets good reviews.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

muppet

2650 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1674

Trusted

#2435993 10-Mar-2020 20:20

vexxxboy:

you could try the Brave browser, it blocks adds and website trackers and gets good reviews.

It doesn't block all the tracking crap and ads that appear in apps though.

Not that I have many ad supported apps, I'll always buy the Pro/Plus version if it'll unlock ads.

And yes @rscole86 you need to download the Github version to get the adblocking features. Adblock services are banned from the Play Store.

Technofreak

6659 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3480

Trusted

#2436000 10-Mar-2020 20:44

Finch:
Can anybody recommend one? I'm tired of seeing the small video clips when I want to play some games or just browse the net. The small video clips especially are quite annoying IMO.

I don't play games on my phone and any apps with ads I can live with. YMMY

However for browsing I highly recommend Opera. So far as I'm concerned it is the best mobile browser bar none. It has an add blocker and a built in VPN. Both of which are switchable.

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

d3Xt3r

697 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 132

Trusted

#2436292 11-Mar-2020 11:51

muppet:

There's two options, Blockada and DNS66.

There's a third and forth option, that is AdGuard (standalone app), and AdGuard DNS (app not required). I've been using AdGuard (the app) for over 4 years now on all my Android devices and it's been awesome. I wouldn't recommend DNS-based blockers (like Blockada, DNS66 and even AdGuard DNS) because they don't filter any HTML code and can't deal with self-hosted ads/scripts or other annoyances like cookie notices or cryptomining scripts.

Edit: But I guess you could use a DNS-based blocker along with a browser that has adblock support, like Samsung Internet, Kiwi Browser, Brave etc.

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

muppet

2650 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1674

Trusted

#2436306 11-Mar-2020 12:23

d3Xt3r:

muppet:

There's two options, Blockada and DNS66.

There's a third and forth option, that is AdGuard (standalone app), and AdGuard DNS (app not required). I've been using AdGuard (the app) for over 4 years now on all my Android devices and it's been awesome. I wouldn't recommend DNS-based blockers (like Blockada, DNS66 and even AdGuard DNS) because they don't filter any HTML code and can't deal with self-hosted ads/scripts or other annoyances like cookie notices or cryptomining scripts.

Edit: But I guess you could use a DNS-based blocker along with a browser that has adblock support, like Samsung Internet, Kiwi Browser, Brave etc.

Yea the AdGuard DNS setting is actually great on Adnroid 10 and I use that a lot, but at home I use split DNS for a lot of my services. That is to access my home assistant externally, my home assistant DNS name resolves to the public IP, but at home it resolves to my internal, private IP (Because on Wifi it's querying my home's DNS server). Adblock DNS breaks this, returning the public IP when I'm at home, thus I can't access my services. (Yes I can use different NAT reflection rules but that's a different hack)

Anyway yes, DNS adblock doesn't get everything, especially anything niche, but it nukes almost all of the annoying ads in things like the imgur app, MyFitnessPal app etc where they're just provided by 3rd party ad SDKs. It also blocks a lot of the silent tracking code that's out there.

Firefox Mobile with uBlockOrigin nukes everything, but damn if that thing isn't slooowww

muppet

2650 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1674

Trusted

#2436308 11-Mar-2020 12:25

Technofreak:
Finch:

Can anybody recommend one? I'm tired of seeing the small video clips when I want to play some games or just browse the net. The small video clips especially are quite annoying IMO.

I don't play games on my phone and any apps with ads I can live with. YMMY

However for browsing I highly recommend Opera. So far as I'm concerned it is the best mobile browser bar none. It has an add blocker and a built in VPN. Both of which are switchable.

Opera's now owned by some shady Chinese company and are now doing dodgy she-ite like this. I personally wouldn't trust them anymore. Opera Mini back in the day was just amazing.

1 | 2