I’ve finally picked up an iPhone about a month ago, and have been loving the experience.
However I’m now thrown into an ad-full world again (I used to have a browser blocking many if not most ads on the android), so I’m wondering, what adblockers do you use (may it be safari extension or entirely new browser for my fellow Europeans)?
Wipr because it has no subscription bs and has proper block lists for my country.
Great model, just tips, so I tip when I notice an update
This! Wipr on phone and Mac. Pi-Hole in my home network.
And for annoyances there’s also Consent-O-Matic and SponsorBlock installed.
I use Wipr in combination with NextDNS. For ads in Browsers and in Apps.
AdGuard Pro
Does it work for other browsers like Firefox?
Same, very happy with it, blocks everything, and also includes VPN.
Youtube ads are a bit tricky, but can also be blocked by opening videos through the AdGuard app.
AdGuard + Vinegar blocks YouTube ada quite well most of the time.
haven’t seen a youtube ad in safari using adguard free. would recommend
Brave browser does an okay job, but remember under the hood everything is just a re-skinned Safari browser. There are content blockers, but AdBlock sold out (allows ads) and uBlock Origin doesn’t work on iOS due to limitations Apple has in place.
Firefox Focus with strict mode
The adblocker that comes with a PIA VPN subscription
I paid for 1Blocker (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/1blocker-ad-blocker/id1365531024) since it runs locally on my phone to block ads as well as trackers from other installed Apps, whether on my home WiFi, other WiFi, or cellular data. There’s a whitelist feature and the filtering can be tailored. I’ve been using it for years (before I got my current phone) so I can’t comment on battery life but I’ve never noticed it to be bad.
It does break some apps if they’re not whitelisted but that just gives me more reason to decide if I really need the app. It’s also possible to temporarily disable the blocking (5 minutes, 30 minutes, etc) which helps with logging in (since so many login services involve trackers).
NextDNS is my latest approach and it’s working well.
Backing this post. NextDNS pretty much blocks everything, even ads in games. And in some games, you can tap the “watch ad to get X” and no ads show up, but you still get rewards.
NextDNS is the best choice imho.
A DNS ad filter on your home network to black hole the requests to ad servers is the only thing I’ve found to be effective on iOS. I tried the ad guard extension in safari but there were just way too many ads that didn’t get blocked
Redundant PiHoles on my home network and the iOS devices always run a WireGuard tunnel back to home.
AdGuard DNS is free and super simple to setup, no app required. It’s my favorite no-fuss solution I found when I switched from Android a few years ago.
https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html
Go to that link, scroll down to method 2, and download an iOS profile. You’ll need to be using Safari for the download to work properly.
You get more customization and features through AdGuard’s app but then you have to pay a subscription for DNS blocking features. While it’s super cheap, I’ve personally been perfectly satisfied with this free solution. It blocks ads system-wide, not just in the browser. For example, in my shopping list app there’s usually a banner ad but it doesn’t load with the adguard DNS enabled. I’m 99% sure it won’t block ads in YouTube though (I sub to premium so I’ve never tried it.)
Next DNS is also free and appears to be the same thing but their website lets you fine-tune your profile, similar to using paid AdGuard. Might be worth looking into that, especially because it appears you can integrate AdGuard’s block list.
AdGuard, and Vinegar for YouTube.
Do Vinegar actually work? I tried it previously and it didn’t do anything for me, tried it again now since it was mentioned and YouTube ads still appear in Safari…
It works for me, it’s a bit janky though because of YouTube’s custom link handler. You have to either open videos in new tabs or reload the page after clicking the video for it to load correctly.
Tbh I don’t actually know if it’s supposed to remove ads, I use it to get the better (Safari built in) video player that can do Picture in Picture and what not.
Could it be localized?
What do you mean?
Could its function be based upon blocklists that are localized as in different for different region
I don’t think YouTube does anything for that to be necessary, but I could be wrong.