Mobile adblockers for Chrome on Android
Mobile adblockers for Chrome on Android
Author
Discussion

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

134 months

Monday 8th February 2021
quotequote all
I don't really understand the tech, but I do know that my Chrome browsing experience between Macbook and Android mobile are very different because of my use of UBlock and AdBlock on my laptop.

A brief look through the Play Store suggests that the only solution to stop ads ruining my mobile browsing would be to install a dedicated browser, which is a no-go for me for a number of reasons.

Has anyone had any success with finding another solution?

Far Cough

2,482 posts

198 months

Monday 8th February 2021
quotequote all
Blokada does the job. Zero adds and no dedicated browser required

Dave.

7,900 posts

283 months

Monday 8th February 2021
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Depending how nerdy you are....

If your phone is rooted, you can use adaway and magisk.

Or you can use a raspberry pi, install pi-hole, and set you phone to use the pi as it's DNS which will block the ads.

Scrump

23,947 posts

188 months

Monday 8th February 2021
quotequote all
I switched from chrome to brave for this reason. Brave works well.

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

134 months

Monday 8th February 2021
quotequote all
Dave. said:
Depending how nerdy you are....

If your phone is rooted, you can use adaway and magisk.

Or you can use a raspberry pi, install pi-hole, and set you phone to use the pi as it's DNS which will block the ads.
I'm definitely not that nerdy.

JimbobVFR

2,822 posts

174 months

Monday 8th February 2021
quotequote all
Brave Browser is based on Chrome, can use chrome extensions and other bits but has the ad blocking built in.

I've switched to Brave on my phone and also on my Mac and Windows machines.

S6PNJ

5,848 posts

311 months

Monday 8th February 2021
quotequote all
Far Cough said:
Blokada does the job. Zero adds and no dedicated browser required
I've been a Blokada user for some time and after a recent update (possibly) I'm starting to get ads on PH again! I have all of the blockers switched on (which also stopped Facebook comments showing so that was whitelisted) and I can't 'right click' and add the ad to Blokada to block it either. Grrrr

Dave.

7,900 posts

283 months

Monday 8th February 2021
quotequote all
JimbobVFR said:
Brave Browser is based on Chrome, can use chrome extensions and other bits but has the ad blocking built in.

I've switched to Brave on my phone and also on my Mac and Windows machines.
Have they got bookmark/password syncing sorted yet?

I tried Brave a while back, I only lasted a few months of faffing about before crawling back to Chrome with my tail between my legs.

Not much of an issue if you've only a couple of devices, but multiple tablets/pcs/laptops/phone/etc, it becomes a real pain.


JimbobVFR

2,822 posts

174 months

Monday 8th February 2021
quotequote all
Dave. said:
Have they got bookmark/password syncing sorted yet?

I tried Brave a while back, I only lasted a few months of faffing about before crawling back to Chrome with my tail between my legs.

Not much of an issue if you've only a couple of devices, but multiple tablets/pcs/laptops/phone/etc, it becomes a real pain.
There's sync but not using a Google signon, it uses a sync chain mechanism of it's own so all instances of Brave stay in sync but it doesn't sync with chrome. It's why I started using the Windows version and now the Mac version as well as on my phone.

NMNeil

5,860 posts

80 months

Monday 8th February 2021
quotequote all
Dave. said:
Depending how nerdy you are....

If your phone is rooted, you can use adaway and magisk.

Or you can use a raspberry pi, install pi-hole, and set you phone to use the pi as it's DNS which will block the ads.
I have pi-hole on my home router, and I had to disconnect it the other day.
The internet is almost unusable without it eek

Far Cough

2,482 posts

198 months

Monday 8th February 2021
quotequote all
S6PNJ said:
I've been a Blokada user for some time and after a recent update (possibly) I'm starting to get ads on PH again! I have all of the blockers switched on (which also stopped Facebook comments showing so that was whitelisted) and I can't 'right click' and add the ad to Blokada to block it either. Grrrr
Not having any issues. Try reinstalling. Mine isn't showing any of the block lists as active but as blocking is spot on.

Pilotguy

436 posts

289 months

Monday 8th February 2021
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Just use Brave browser, all the ad blocking wizardry is built in, nothing to install. It makes ad heavy websites loads more readable.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com....

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

134 months

Wednesday 10th February 2021
quotequote all
Pilotguy said:
Just use Brave browser, all the ad blocking wizardry is built in, nothing to install. It makes ad heavy websites loads more readable.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com....
Sadly I rely too heavily on Chrome across multiple work and personal devices.

paulrockliffe

16,618 posts

257 months

Wednesday 10th February 2021
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NMNeil said:
I have pi-hole on my home router, and I had to disconnect it the other day.
The internet is almost unusable without it eek
It's terrible isn't it! Only downside is if your PiHole goes down it can cause a lot of issues. I had it setup on a server that kept filling it's Cache disk up which caused all the Dockers to stop running. I have it setup on a RPi now so it's isolated from the rest of my server.

OP, you could run PiHole and a VPN and route all your mobile traffic via the VPN so that PiHole can block your mobile too. It's not without risk as if the VPN goes down, so does your phone, but it would give you the same experience away from home and on mobile.

You can always configure the phone to be easy to turn the VPN routing off.

Semmelweiss

1,839 posts

226 months

Wednesday 10th February 2021
quotequote all
paulrockliffe said:
It's terrible isn't it! Only downside is if your PiHole goes down it can cause a lot of issues. I had it setup on a server that kept filling it's Cache disk up which caused all the Dockers to stop running. I have it setup on a RPi now so it's isolated from the rest of my server.

OP, you could run PiHole and a VPN and route all your mobile traffic via the VPN so that PiHole can block your mobile too. It's not without risk as if the VPN goes down, so does your phone, but it would give you the same experience away from home and on mobile.

You can always configure the phone to be easy to turn the VPN routing off.
I have done exactly this. Works like a charm.

LordGrover

34,185 posts

242 months

Wednesday 10th February 2021
quotequote all
Semmelweiss said:
paulrockliffe said:
It's terrible isn't it! Only downside is if your PiHole goes down it can cause a lot of issues. I had it setup on a server that kept filling it's Cache disk up which caused all the Dockers to stop running. I have it setup on a RPi now so it's isolated from the rest of my server.

OP, you could run PiHole and a VPN and route all your mobile traffic via the VPN so that PiHole can block your mobile too. It's not without risk as if the VPN goes down, so does your phone, but it would give you the same experience away from home and on mobile.

You can always configure the phone to be easy to turn the VPN routing off.
I have done exactly this. Works like a charm.
Is it literally as simple as this: click?

paulrockliffe

16,618 posts

257 months

Wednesday 10th February 2021
quotequote all
LordGrover said:
Semmelweiss said:
paulrockliffe said:
It's terrible isn't it! Only downside is if your PiHole goes down it can cause a lot of issues. I had it setup on a server that kept filling it's Cache disk up which caused all the Dockers to stop running. I have it setup on a RPi now so it's isolated from the rest of my server.

OP, you could run PiHole and a VPN and route all your mobile traffic via the VPN so that PiHole can block your mobile too. It's not without risk as if the VPN goes down, so does your phone, but it would give you the same experience away from home and on mobile.

You can always configure the phone to be easy to turn the VPN routing off.
I have done exactly this. Works like a charm.
Is it literally as simple as this: click?
No, that's different type of VPN. And you need to pay for that setup too.

That VPN setup is basically connecting your home network to the internet via a different location, all your internet traffic is encrypted, sent to the VPN in whatever country, decrypted and sent out into the world. Same route back. Makes it very hard to see the traffic going into the VPN in, for example, Sweden and then see where it went to. ie who is downloading that film.

For this you want the VPN to work the other way; your device out in the world is connecting to your device at home, so your home device is like the device in Sweden and it's really just adding an extra point in the journey between the device and the internet which gives you the opportunity to monitor and restrict.

DaveH23

3,355 posts

200 months

Wednesday 10th February 2021
quotequote all
You mention Adblock on your laptop, I have been using Adblock on android phones for a few years now.

Granted i'm using Samsung Internet on a Huawei P30 Pro but it still works, i'd be surprised if you can't get it for Chrome on your phone.

David_M

487 posts

80 months

Wednesday 10th February 2021
quotequote all
Vivaldi is an excellent browser on desktop and I switched to their android browser once they had built in adblocking.

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

134 months

Wednesday 10th February 2021
quotequote all
DaveH23 said:
You mention Adblock on your laptop, I have been using Adblock on android phones for a few years now.

Granted i'm using Samsung Internet on a Huawei P30 Pro but it still works, i'd be surprised if you can't get it for Chrome on your phone.
Sadly there doesn't seem to be the same level of availability of 'Extensions' for Chrome on mobile.