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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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.
Chrome doesn’t behave that way for me. It uses my DNS settings correctly and ads are blocked. I can’t remember it ever not behaving, though I usually use Firefox.
The developers of an app that uses ads can also just route the traffic through a server that also provides something crirical for the app to work. You’d have some CDN probably serving both. I mean, in the long run, if app developers work againat it, you can’t block apps from showing ads by blocking network traffic.
I doubt that the Android security model lets apps know what’s happening on overlays, though, as doing so would create issues for Android as an OS. So apps that cover up ads are hard for app developers to defeat.
Is it possible to use private dns only on mobile network ?
So what I never understood, why is this free and is there an risk attaches to using it, e.g. adguard or nextdns logging your traffic or something. I have always been suspicious, for no good reason to be honest, of using such a dns service.
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.
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.
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
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.
NextDNS (free up to 300k queries/month, doesn’t require any additional apps) or AdGuard (paid but has cosmetic filtering, they have their own app available on their website). Both are fast and don’t require root.
Just to note, Adguard cosmetic filtering only works with browser apps without root. For most other apps it requires root to filter HTTPS traffic.
Does NextDNS use a VPN? Unfortunately TailScale and VPNs can’t be active at the same time
You can actually take it one step further and directly integrate NextDNS into your Tailnet: https://tailscale.com/kb/1218/nextdns/
Not if you use androids built-in private dns feature. Try these with private dns https://dnswarden.com/index.html https://www.rethinkdns.com/ https://controld.com/ https://nextdns.io dot.chi.ahadns.net adblock.doh.mullvad.net dot-de.blahdns.com dns.adguard.com
If you’re coming from Blokada, check out AdAway. It works the same way unrooted, setting itself as a VPN that can be toggled on and off. So if you’re coming from Blokada, it’s like that, but without the recent-ish subscription stuff - so you’ll feel right at home.
I’ve been using AdGuard on my phone (OnePlus 6T) and tablet (Tab S7 FE) for quite some time now. Neither device is rooted. I got AdGuard lifetime license on sale from StackSocial a while back. The app isn’t on the Play Store (if you look for it, you will instead find an extension for the Samsung browser or something). They have you download the .apk from their site, and then you can set up the blocking how you prefer. It works by setting up a local VPN. I think there’s other ways to use it but I didn’t feel the need to tweak further. Because it acts like a VPN, all app traffic flows through it so ads are blocked pretty much system-wide. Browsers, social media apps etc. Honestly I’d highly recommend it.
I use adguard as well. Zero complaints.
Have you noticed any battery drain from it? Blockada sometimes affected my battery life when in use, or even after I deactivated it.
Honestly not that much. It seems pretty lightweight. It has it’s own measurement of battery usage (can’t say how accurate it is but still better than nothing perhaps?) and on the tablet it has consumed around 9mAh, which I guess isn’t too crazy.
I set up an account with NextDNS and set them as my DNS server. It blocks ads, trackers, malicious websites. You can set up custom blocks, rewrites, and it has logging.
Easily the best option, works so well and you can still use your own VPN as and when required.
Plus it’s free under 300k queries a month. I’ve been using it for years and never hit my limit. I should pay for it though, it’s not expensive and I’ve gotten a lot of value out of it.
Yeah I have a pihole at home, but considered paying and then setting it up on my whole network. Not sure.
I considered setting up a pi hole or something similar, but worry about the bus situation and my family. I figure NextDNS would be easier to maintain or remove than added hardware.
Bus situation?
If I get hit by a bus, who will maintain it? Comes from working in IT and not having one person be the sole person with the knowledge of something. Also called the lotto situation. What happens if they win the lotto and bounce?
Blokada used to be recommend a lot in the past, what happen to them in the past 2 years?
They’ve moved to a cloud-based, subscription model for the new version (Blockada 6). You can still get Blockada 5, which is offline and free, for now, but it may be phased out at some point.
Yeah I’m not looking forward to that. 5 has been great for me for a few years though. Ads be gone!
I don’t know. I still use it and it works flawless for me. Is there a reason why I should use something else?
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 paid Adguard on my s23 and my ipad and I love it
I hate adguard v4, what have they done?
Why do you hate it? I noticed it takes more steps to filter out an app but haven’t messed much with it tbh
I use Fennec (fork of Firefox stable) as my main browser and it has uBlock Origin, which has tons of filters. They even added specific mobile ones for annoyances like cookie banners. On top of that, I set my private DNS to
dns.adguard.com. Ads aren’t getting thru my defenses!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.
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.
