Everyone knows how to save yourself from annoying ads on PC with ad blockers, but is it possible on Android? And the answer to this question is Yes. Chrome’s built-in tools, special DNS provider, ad blocker apps or Firefox addons and more options.

Watch the video version of this guide, or continue reading below.

How to Block Ads on Android

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Method 1: Chrome browser for Android

One of key features of Chrome for Android is the built-in ad blocker and here is how you can check these feature settings.

  1. In Google Chrome, open the menu by tapping on the three dots here in the corner of the screen.
  2. Then find the Settings section, scroll a bit and go to the Site settings submenu.
  3. Here you will find two options: Ads and Pop-ups and redirects responsible for blocking annoying ads and unwanted pop-ups, respectively. Note that on newer versions of Chrome, both options must be disabled in order to use them. Their current state is easy to check, as you can see if you tap it, the feature description switching to Allowed or Block ads. Naturally, we need the second option, which is available only with this switcher position.

Method 2: Ad blocking via DNS

DNS is one of the services that is required for the modern Internet. In Android 10 and higher, you can change the base DNS server for all outgoing traffic on the device. To configure DNS for ad blocking on Android, do the following:

  1. Open device settings and go to connection settings. In my case this item is called “Network & internet”.
  2. Here you see the Private DNS option, tap it. If you have it disabled or in an automatic mode, select the "Custom" or "Private" option.
  3. Enter “dns.adguard.com” in the field and click Save.

Method 3: Ad blocker apps

There is a third option to block ads on Android – use an adblocker application, most of which use the local VPN server - another way to filter ads from your traffic.

Take Adguard as an example. Find it in the Play Market, install and run. And as you can see, on the start screen, it can work only with two browsers. Select Yandex Browser or Samsung Internet Browser if you use one of them. Next, the app shows the explanation to us why any full-fledged ad blockers are not available in the Play Store. Click “Go to Products” and here we are on Adguard's site, where you can download the full version of their ad blocker for Android.

There are two options: quick and detailed filter settings. Thorough setup is a questionnaire where you choose whether you want to block ads in web search results, hide social widgets, site notifications, and more. If you are not sure of your needs, leave it “as is”. These options can be changed later in the settings.

The first question in Quick mode is about using ad blocker on an HTTPS connection, skip it for now. The second is the creation of a local VPN connection, which I mentioned earlier - you need it. When you first start you will be shown two very "helpful" tips, but it's better than nothing.

Method 4: Browsers with built-in ad blocking

And in the end, the most interesting way to block ads. Download and install Firefox for Android from the Play Market if you don't already have it. Then open a browser and select Add-ons in the settings. The list is small, but 3 ad blockers are available here: the already familiar AdGuard, the famous uBlock Origin, and the privacy-oriented Ghostery. You can use any of them, but not all at once, as it negatively affects the performance of the browser.

Let me use uBlock Origin. Firefox will ask for using uBlock in private browsing mode. Tick Allow and click OK. Go to settings and you'll see a series of tabs, each containing dozens of available options. You can customise them for yourself or leave them "as is", as they are already set to the optimal level of ad blocking.

Summary

So, there are at least 4 ways to block ads on Android. As you can see they vary in complexity and efficiency, but I hope this video will help you make the best choice for your needs. The built- in Chrome for Android browser tools shows the effectiveness only against site’s notifications so this method gets the worst “E” mark. Better results were with using DNS routing, but it brokes our first test website and may be difficult to set up for some users.

The third method, with Adguard as example, shows good ads blocking results, but it only comes second place since it often interferes (and breaks down) with websites interfaces and structures. The best result with the “A” mark is the Firefox for Android with built-in uBlock addon. It blocks ads on both test websites without any issues in their performance which was the main task of these tests.