5 Best Ad Blocking Mobile Apps

Introduction

Ad blocking is crucial to create a seamless browsing experience on our mobile devices. This is especially helpful when playing games or watching video content. Blocking ads on your android devices often requires root access or installing third-party applications. 

While there are several ad blocker extensions for Chrome, Choosing the right ad blocker for your android device can seem like a daunting task. Firstly, only a handful of browser extensions are compatible with mobile devices. Google Chrome and Microsoft extensions do not work on Android. Safari, on the other hand, is meant only for iOS users. Mozilla Firefox extensions along with add-ons, are the only ones that are compatible with Android.

Google Play Store does not offer any system-wide ad blockers. There exists a lot of scepticism and apprehension about downloading third-party ad blocking applications. 

Top 5 Ad Blockers For Android

1. Total Adblock

This impressive android ad blocker helps safeguard users from unwanted ads, malicious sites and intrusive trackers. This blocker boasts an impressive blocking rate and works great even with the free version. It effectively blocks banner ads, contextual ads and seamlessly integrates with analytics tools. 

It works great for blocking YouTube app ads as well. You simply need to share the video that you are watching with Total Adblock and watch it directly from the app to circumvent the pre-roll ads. This ad block app supports not just Firefox but any other browser that you use to stream content. Its paid version equips users with additional features like TotalAV antivirus protection and PC Tune-Up.

One skeptical aspect of this app is that you will have to download it outside of Google Play. This means that Play Protect scan will not be able to scan the app for blocking malicious content. If you are apprehensive about downloading the app from outside of the PlayStore, you can opt for a Firefox add-on.

Also Read: Best Free VPN Chrome Extensions (2024)

2. NordVPN Threat Protection

You must have heard of Nord being regarded as one the best VPNs in the market but little did we know that it features an in-built ad blocker too. Subscribers can enjoy the threat protection feature as well. It blocks ads and trackers alongside detecting viruses and phishing activities.

Apart from basic ad blocking features, NordVPN equips users with other features too. These include the ability to mask your IP address while on public Wi-Fi in order to safeguard your device, bypass geo-restrictions and hide your internet traffic. This powerful privacy tool protects against DNS and WebRTC leaks. This app is available on the Google Play Store.

NordVPN, however, does not come with a Firewall, leaving open a potential protection loophole. 

Read our full NordVPN review here

3. Adblock Plus

This ad blocking app offers users with added control in terms of app settings, and is totally free to use.  It allows users to personalise their browsing experience with “acceptable ads” and “custom whitelist” features. 

Users can permit sites on an Allowlist to sow ads without any third-party tracking. The ads, however, must fulfil certain criterias and adhere to the “Acceptable Ads” standard. Users can utilise this feature to support advertisers and creators who rely on ad revenue.

The free version of Adblock Plus comes with an anti-tracking feature. It offers users with an Adblock browser, which is a privacy browser app. This eliminates the need to use a Firefox add-on.

4. Ghostery

This is one of the best free ad-blocking extensions that you can get your hands on. It comes with all the core features like removing pop-up ads, anti-tracking, cookie consent blocker, analytics tools, etc. It also permits users to synchronise settings between devices and browsers.

Ghostery’s never-consent feature helps users bypass the cookie consent pop-up notifications by automatically opting out of all cookies. This helps users to safeguard their online privacy while browsing the internet seamlessly.

 The paid version comes with features like advanced tracker analytics, historical data, personalised themes, 24*7 user support and zero sponsored links when browsing with the Private Browser and Private Search Engine.

5. AdGuard

This unique no root ad blocker for Android helps users evade ads and tracking easily. It incorporates language-specific filters for ad blocking. AdGuard permits users to create rules for ad blocking on specific websites for a more tailored experience. AdGuard’s tracking protection filter provides safety from online trackers and web analytics tools. 

This filter directs websites to not track you by sending them signals like “Global Privacy Control” and “Do Not Track”. It also helps hide search queries and offer DNS protection. It blocks DNS requests to potentially harmful domains. Users can opt to unblock domains by creating user rules.