5 best ad-blocker apps for Android

Use these apps to disable system-wide ads

By Gizbot Bureau

| Published: Saturday, February 23, 2019, 14:04 [IST]

Everyone who spends time online knows just how frequently we’re bombarded with advertisements. There are ads everywhere. Your online footprint is so well tracked, there’s an ad for everything you search for. Apart from the blatant attack on privacy, you’ll also have to deal with its intrusiveness. Some of them pop up during a game, or while listening to a song if you use apps such as Wynk.

On a desktop, controlling ads is far easier with browser extensions. But what about Android users? What options do they have? Let’s take a look at some popular ad blockers for Android. Note that these may not be available on the Play Store and need to be downloaded from elsewhere. A lot of these apps may require you to have a rooted phone, or a rooted phone simply makes the process easier for the app.

AdAway

A straightforward and simple app. If you want a software that is easy to use and handle, then AdAway is the app for you. It is one of the most popular ad blockers for Android. However, the downside is that AdAway requires a rooted phone and non-rooted ones cannot support this.

Adblock Plus

Another immensely popular app which you can download from their own website. Adblock Plus work on both rooted and non-rooted phones, therefore, it is compatible on all Android phones. However, the process on non-rooted phones is quite complicated. The process can be understood by visiting their website which provides a step-by-step tutorial.

AdGuard

An extremely well organized, well designed app that blocks ads from games, webpages, other apps, and malware. AdGuard runs in the background without you having to keep it open. It filters traffic. A similar problem with Adblock Plus occurs here, i.e., installing on non-rooted phones is tough. AdGuard is based on material design and blends in well with your phone.

Block This

A new player in the market that goes after the above mentioned ad blockers such as AdGuard and Adblock Plus. And it has similar features, but varies in the technique it uses. Instead of plain old web filtering, Block This uses DNS Blocking. The developer's opinion is that this technique doesn't require extensive battery usage. It's 100% free.

Browsers

Some of the browsers these day come in with powerful ad blockers. Firefox focus, DuckDuckGo, Brave Browser, etc., are browsers that have a pre-existing ad blocker. This removes all ad content and prevents any popup from appearing. An additional advantage is that these are all mostly lightweight and don't gorge on your RAM.

So try the apps mentioned above and come to a conclusion on what app is best suited for you and your phone.