Several years ago, I used Blockada, which was frequently recommended. According to some discussion threads, it seems to have fallen from grace.
What ad blocker that doesn’t require root do you use? What’s your experience with it? Would you recommend it?
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I’m surprised that I haven’t seen anyone mention this, but Firefox for Android lets you install from a list of compatible extensions. You can use uBlock Origin as normal.
Thanks. Vivaldi has built-in support for ad blocking, too, and you can also add custom lists to it.
Private DNS. I use https://nextdns.io/, and then just change my phone’s private DNS address to match.
Works great, easy enough to toggle off if needed.
You can easily use private DNS settings on your android without installing anything!
dns.adguard.com is simple and works well nextdns allows more configuration, stats and blocklists
I personally never found DNS adblockers to be very successful.
If you’re using Chrome, that’s why. Chrome bypasses your DNS settings and uses Google’s DNS because they found using the system settings was affecting their ad revenue. Using Firefox fixes this, although in Firefox you can just use ublock origin anyway, which works even better.
Adguard is the best option for system-wide, rootless ad blocking on Android IMO.
It’s the best because it also performs cosmetic filtering to reclaim the empty space that most other blockers leave behind after removing an ad from a web page. This makes web pages look much cleaner and is something that I value in any adblocker, mobile or otherwise. The free version works across any browser or embedded webview instance within apps, and the paid version filters all ads within apps as well. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Completely negligible impact on battery life as well.
Thanks, that’s useful to know, especially regarding the paid vs free version. I may get the trial to see how it does, then consider getting a license.
Adaway is the go to thing for me, it’s FOSS and Supports VPN as Well as Root Mode. Also it already has some Blocklists integrated and you can easily add more and the battery drain is near to negligable.
I use DNS66 downloaded from F-Droid. It registers itself as a VPN, but it’s actually a DNS filter, not a VPN. It works to filter ads on most apps, and you can individually disable it for specific apps if needed.
I also use the Firefox app, which supports a few add-ons (much less than the desktop version), including uBlock and some similar options
I’d recommend one or both. They’re working great for me on a non-rooted Pixel 4a 5G
I use paid Adguard on my s23 and my ipad and I love it
Trackercontrol on Fdroid
I uninstalled blokada 5 after trying trackercontrol, is the best for blocking ad and trackers
The only downside is you can’t use other vpn or privatedns for encryption.
Honestly, I should probably set up a system-wide adblocker, but I just use uBlock in Firefox and avoid apps that shove ads in my face.
