Ads, pop-ups, auto-play video ads, and more are an everyday annoyance as you navigate around the web. Imagine how interruption-free browsing could be without all those pesky ads.
Well, you don’t need to imagine that scenario with Adblock Plus. You can say goodbye to the constant, time-consuming distractions. This nifty mobile app helps you reclaim the internet, speeds up your browsing, and saves you data and battery power.
And who doesn’t want ad-free web browsing?
With a few taps, you can get uninterrupted browsing and your privacy back at the same time. It’s a straightforward win too.
To be clear, Adblock Plus isn’t a standalone app as such; it’s a web browser. It’s based on Chromium, though Adblock did come to prominence initially for their web browser extensions.
Blocks all manner of ads
Interruption-free browsing
Saves your battery
Saves data
Reclaim your privacy
No more creepy ad tracking
Blocks pre and mid-roll YouTube ads
Prevents malware infection
The makers of Adblock Plus reckon their products have been installed on over 100 million devices worldwide. But this figure variously is quoted as 200 million and 400 million. Suffice to say, it’s a lot.
Though their life’s work has been about blocking ads, the Adblock Plus team inhabits the real world and realizes that ads finance many websites.
They manage this dilemma through something called Acceptable Ads to allow some less annoying ads through their filtering. It is switched on by default but customizable.
They define Acceptable Ads as those which are not annoying or intrusive. It all sounds relatively subjective, but they go on that Acceptable Ads are those that don’t directly interfere with a site’s content, respectful, and clearly labeled as adverts.
An Acceptable Ads Committee (yes, it’s a thing) draws up the criteria, and those ads deemed acceptable are placed on a whitelist. These ads are then displayed when users permit Acceptable Ads.
It’s a pragmatic approach that allows websites to continue outside a paywall and only penalizes those that are completely in your face with ads the whole time.
It’s free
Works on rooted and non-rooted devices
It runs in the background
One time set up and forget
Easy to set up whitelists
Multi-language support
You may inadvertently miss out on a deal due to blocking.
Adblock Plus for Android is downloadable from Google Play. You will need Android 5.0 or later; storage requirements vary by device. Google Play has recorded over ten million-plus installs, with users awarding the app a highly respectable 4.4 out of 5.
The app for iOS is called Adblock Browser, so be careful as there are other similarly named apps. On iOS, Adblock Browser is a lightweight 31.1 MB and requires iOS 10.0 or later. It is rated only marginally above average at 2.6 out of five, but this is based on less than two dozen reviews so far.
You can get the proper download links emailed to you from the adblockbrowser.org website.
