In most any browser on Windows, such as Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, finding an ad-blocking extension is a two-click solution. Yet, the process for properly blocking ads on a phone is exponentially more complicated, and the fact that many websites have their own apps such as Youtube mean that you might have to find an ad-blocking solution for each app on a case-by-case approach. Why is this the case?
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If you’re on Android use blokada 5s it’s great and only a few small issues to work though. Every now and again, you gotta turn it off when going onto a website because it’ll say the connection was disrupted or something like that. But make sure the app is turned on, then you can play games and whatever on your phone with no random pop up ads
Get Firefox on your phone. It’s simple to install uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger.
Of course, you won’t get ad blocking in other apps like the YouTube or Reddit apps. I try to only use my Firefox browser whenever possible just for this reason.
Why is it hard to install extensions on smartphones:
– on Android, the most popular browser is Google Chrome, and Google doesn’t want you to use an ad blocker because Google has an advertisement system that is widely used on the web.
– on iOS, the web browsing experience is not a priority because Apple want you to use native apps to get a fee. Also, on iOS the only browser engine available is the one provided by Apple itself, other companies cannot use their engine even if they are superior in quality and speed (so you’ll prefer the native app).
– Firefox for Android let you install extensions such as ad block. I tried it personally, it’s easy to install.
You said it yourself: they have their own apps. Using an app instead of a website on a phone a bit better (but not always the best) since it looks nicer and the buttons aren’t too small. But for a computer, an ad-blocker in the form of an extension is a convenient workaround since everything is in a browser. There are alternatives to an extension on Android, like a self-hosting VPN that filters out domains that host ads (not sure if I worded it correctly), or modifying the hosts file to do the same thing (requires root since it’s located in `/system/etc`).
If you’re using Android 9 (Pie) or newer your best option is a private DNS
Go to Settings > Network & Internet > Advanced > Private DNS
1. You also need to make a flag change in Chrome
2. Open chrome://flags/ in chrome browser
3. Search for DNS
4. Disable Async DNS resolver
For a DNS resolver I’m currently using https://nextdns.io/ and it seems to be working pretty well at blocking ads except for YouTube.
The process is the same on my windows 10 PC and Android phone. Install firefox, then install an ad block extension.
On a phone OS, things are a lot more compartmentalized. Like one app is basically shut off from all other apps, and can only interact with certain OS systems if they get granted permission (like camera, microphone, etc). Basically, security is a lot tighter.
A browser extension is sort of like a separate app that interacts with, and changes the behavior of, the browser. Phone OSes do not generally allow this sort of dynamic behavior-changing, as part of the tight security.
Also, apps must be certified before being listed on the app stores. Certified to only behave a certain way. And the ad-blocking extensions are generally created by 3rd parties. So in order for the extension to be part of the certified app, it would just have to be built into the app from the get-go, which the largest browsers wouldn’t do because then they wouldn’t be making ad revenue. Some browsers, like ~~Braze~~ Brave I believe, do in fact have ad-blocking built-in.
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Side note: a great way to block ads on a phone (or at least Android) is to go into your network/internet settings, and set a “Private DNS” to [dns.adguard.com](https://dns.adguard.com)
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EDIT (2022-6-6 13:11 UTC) : Wow, lots of people liked, upvoted, and awarded my non-sober late-night answer. Oh man….
Just wanted to add a few points, many of which brought up by commenters, so thanks to all. I believe my original answer is not the best, so I want to add more details since it’s very visible on the top. (probably more likely to be seen this way than by someone else posting a new answer, right?)
I think there’s a better answer to the question than what I wrote, which involves 3 main components
1. Difference in how information is accessed.
2. Difference in device capabilities, and the ease of those capabilities.
3. Difference in the companies responsible for development, and their goals and design decisions.
To elaborate on these 3 points:
1. On a PC, you access almost all internet information directly through your browser. This makes it a convenient place to add in an ad-blocking filter, in just one spot. On a phone though, you also access through a lot of separate apps, so it’s just not as convenient to put one browser-based ad-blocker in place. It’s also not possible to add “extensions” to most apps.
2. A phone is much smaller than a PC, and fine controls are harder to access. An extension within a browser is easy to manage on a PC, but a lot harder to manage on a small device. They make the browser apps simpler for this reason.
3. Google gains a lot of profit from ad revenue. It would make sense that their design decisions are affected by this. This, combined with the mentioned security and compartmentalization, is maybe not the main answer to the question, but I’d say it certainly drives the capabilities of apps within a phone OS away from easy custom extensions like we have on a PC. By comparison, Microsoft does not gain heavy profit from ads, but from software, so they’d be more incentivized to allow (or make easier) the building of software on their OS that can be more customizable.
**Regarding my private dns suggestion:**
Don’t blindly follow any random internet stranger’s recommendations, make sure you read up on things yourself before deciding what to use or not use.
Default DNS resolution services are there because they are the most trusted. By using a 3rd party service you’re possibly gaining some benefit (like ad-blocking) in exchange for possibly using a less trusted service. Yes, this service can now see all website that you’re going to. They could potentially tell your system to go to a different website than the one you thought you were going to.
There are other ad-blocking private dns services, a few have suggested nextDNS.
Others have brought up that adguard is Russian-based. There may certainly be legitimate arguments to not using Russian-based services, but just be wary of making decisions based on bigotry (unintentional or not).
You can also build your own ad-blocking private dns service, lookup “pi hole” for more info there.
Anyways, make sure you read comments and other answers too, thanks!
I ad block on my wifi. It blocks most ads on my apps as well.
Pihole as a virtual. On my router I set the dns to the Pihole server. Problem solved.
Phones are built around a “sealed” system which you can’t change, and strongly isolated apps. This is much more secure than what you get on PC, but also prevents you from blocking ads.
Additionally, on PC you’re much more likely to use a web site, while on the phone you will almost certainly use an app. That’s because installing apps is easier and more common on phones – (unfortunately) few people will shun your service because it requires an app, while on Desktop, requiring or pushing you to install something would lose a company most customers. This is partially because it’s still harder to create a good experience for touch devices with unreliable network on the web.
You can easily block ads on the web on Android if you install Firefox. Chrome doesn’t support it for obvious reasons (Google makes most of its money from ads).
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong
On a computer, the extensions block ads at the browser level. It doesn’t mess with your network settings for your whole PC
On a phone, there’s no way to do that on most phone browsers for one reason or another (I think Firefox is the exception) the reason is so convoluted on phones is, generally speaking, they’re actually modifying your network settings when you turn it on (using a VPN, changing your DNS settings, ect) so instead of intercepting at the browser level it changes things for your whole phone. The plus of this though is that it also blocks adds on games and other apps as well.
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