How To Block Ads On iPhone & Android

They are primarily intrusive and distract us from our pure entertainment or reading experience. That’s why the number of users blocking ads on their smartphones is increasing.

According to Statista, about 25.8% of internet users block advertising on their connected devices.

If you also want to block the ads and get rid of them, you can easily do that. In this article, we will show you how to block ads on your iPhone or Android device. So if you’re ready to say goodbye to ads, read on!

How To block Ads on iPhone?

If you’re using an iPhone, there are a few different ways to block ads. You can use Safari’s built-in content blocker, download a third-party ad blocker, or use a browser with an ad blocker.

Block pop-ups on Safari

iOS has an inbuilt pop-up blocker to eliminate the nuisance created by Ads. Here are step-by-step instructions for blocking ads on your iPhone or iPad device.

On your iPhone, launch the Settings app.
Go to Safari.
Toggle on the Block Pop-ups option.

This is an initial and good start to block ads. But for a full-fledged ad-blocking experience, you must download a third-party ads blocker.

Use third-party ad-blocker

Ad blockers work via Safari extensions. Since iOS 9, this feature has offered a variety of useful add-ons for removing pesky advertising.

You can find many ad blockers for iPhones and iPads on AppStore. Choose any of them and set. Some best ad blocker applications are AdBlock Plus and AdGuard.

Steps to add an ad-blocker on iOS:

Go to AppStore and install the content blocker app of your choice.
Launch the Settings application.
Scroll down and click on Safari.
Click Extensions.
Toggle on the content blocker of your choice.

So that’s it! To disable a blocker, you can return to this screen and turn off the switch next to it.

How to block ads on iOS apps and games?

You can easily block ads in iPhone games by using Adguard DNS. This DNS blocks ad in almost every game. Adguard DNS entirely blocks all ads in games like Helix Jump and Crowd City.

Here are the steps to block ads on iOS games:

Launch Safari on your iPhone and go to the Adguard DNS public DNS website.
Tap on ‘iOS’ to enlarge the iOS steps. Now select ‘Default server‘ and click on ‘Download Profile.‘
Upon downloading the profile, open Settings and tap the banner that says ‘Profile downloaded.’ Click ‘Install’ and go through the prompts to install the profile.
Upon installation, Adguard DNS must be activated on your iPhone. Follow the steps below if you want to confirm whether it is activated or not.
Go to Settings> General> VPN, DNS & Device Management.
Click on ‘DNS’ and select ‘dns.adguard.com DoH’ as the desired DNS.

Note: This method works on both iOS 15 and iOS 16.

Quick Tip: An alternative way to block ad in safari is turning off wifi and mobile data. When there is no internet connectivity, there are no ads on your screen. Open your favorite game first and let it download all updates. Once it’s over, tap the Wi-Fi and Cellular Data icons in the Control Center to turn them off. Lastly, toggle off the game, wait for a few seconds and relaunch it.

How to block Ads on Android?

If you’re tired of seeing ads when you use your Android device, there are a few things you can do to block them. You can install an ad blocker, use a browser with built-in ad blocking, or disable certain ads in your device’s settings.

Block ads on Chrome

For Android users to block ads, google chrome has a built-in ads blocker. It helps you to disable misleading, intrusive ads.

Steps to block ads on Chrome:

Navigate to Google Chrome on your Android phone.
Click on the three-dot menu in the top right corner and open Settings.
Scroll to Site settings.
Click on Pop-ups and redirects.
Now toggle on from the following menu.
Back to Site settings and tap Ads.
Toggle on Ads.

Use ad-blocker extension

Google Chrome doesn’t offer an ad-blocker extension on smartphones. So, if you want to disable or remove ads during web browsing, you must install a different web browser.

But you can use Samsung Internet and Firefox as an alternative to chrome. They offer ad-blocker extensions on Android. Or you can use the Brave browser, which comes with an in-built ad-blocker extension. Besides that, you need to take extra precautions to eliminate ads.

Disable ad notifications

You should check the google chrome site notifications. If you have allowed every website to send real-time notifications, you must not do that. Some sites can spam your phone’s notification center with irrelevant partner content.

Steps to disable notifications from a website:

Long-press the icon of Google Chrome and press the “i” button.
Tap on Notifications.
Now scroll down to All Sites Notifications.
Review each web site’s list of allowed sites and the frequency of its weekly alerts.
Lastly, disable notification permission for unknown websites from the list.

Block ads on the home screen

Home screen ads are worse than web browser or notification center ads. The Android platform allows app developers to request “Display over other apps” permission to function properly.

Some sketchy apps trick users into allowing permission and sending ads continuously. Whenever you receive such ads, look on your home screen for the app name that sent them. After identifying those apps, follow the steps below to disable their permissions:

Long press on the app icon and then tap the app info button.
Go to Display over other applications.
Toggle off the Allow display over other apps.

Note: If you no longer use such applications, uninstall them.

How to block Ads on Android games?

There are different options to avoid ads on android mobile games. Some of the ways to block ads on mobile games on Android devices are:

Turn on Airplane mode

The ads are not built into the application. The game downloads them from an external server. In airplane mode, all connections to the internet are closed, and advertising isn’t downloaded.

As a nice side effect, your battery life will last longer because your phone won’t spend it on network services. simple as it is. This method only works for some games, as most require a constant web connection.

Use a VPN service

VPNs reroute your traffic and make servers think you are in a different country. Choosing a country where advertising is less likely to occur is an excellent way to avoid being targeted by advertisers.

Choose a VPN service with a country that does not speak either of the languages your game supports. It limits ads from appearing.

Use a private DNS

To block ads, find an ad-blocking DNS server you can trust. Navigate to Settings and select Network & Internet or Wireless & Networks. Now scroll down and tap on Private DNS, and in the field Configure Private DNS, select the DNS server of your preference.

Conclusion

Ads are a necessary evil. They’re how companies make money off of free apps and content. But ads can also be intrusive, annoying, and even dangerous. Therefore, it’s good to block ads on your smartphone.

There are various ways to limit ads on iPhone and Android devices. The most effective and simplest way is to use an ad blocker. Ad blocker stops ads from appearing on your screen.

Ad blockers are available for iPhone and Android and can be downloaded free from the App Store or Google Play. Ad blockers work by automatically blocking cookies and server-side scripts that are used to deliver ads.

I hope you now know how to block ads on iPhone & Android.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are ad blocker applications safe?

Yes, in the maximum cases, ad blockers are safe. But that doesn’t mean all applications are safe. You must choose reliable ad-blocking software.

Did ad blocker applications protect from viruses?

Unfortunately, No. Anti-malware software and ad blockers can’t fully protect you from malware and viruses. These blockers only hide online ads from you.

Why do mobile games have so many ads?

Games on mobile devices have so many ads because it helps keep them free. The other one is about money from in-app purchases. Websites or applications highly rely on ads to generate revenue.