YHK - yet another hacker news clone

System-level ad-blocking in Android

22 points birdculture 1 hour ago 11 comments

figmert 49 minutes ago | parent

I can't recommend AdGuard enough. It works across devices, and just does all the DNS level blocking everywhere. I've been able to install it on my parents' devices, my siblings' devices, and more places. They have apps for just about any device. On top of that, you can install user scripts and use them on your mobile phones even if your browser doesn't support them (does require a CA cert being trusted).

My biggest issue is I can't use it while I'm connected to Tailscale, but my plan is to install AdGuard Home on my homelab and have that take over instead. It does remove many of the functions, but it's better than the alternative

Onavo 49 minutes ago | parent

Sigh, that's a lot of words to describe DNS based adblocking.

In Android you can either set your DNS server in the system settings or via the VPN API.

Sample code here https://github.com/t895/DNSNet/blob/a-couple-updates/service...

They both do the same thing. There are local device-only resolver apps like

https://rethinkdns.com/

https://github.com/m66b/netguard

Another famous one is DNS66 but it's sadly unmaintained. Avoid apps with the word "ad" in their name, they are usually semi commercial and can't be trusted.

Do note all of these methods can be overridden on the app level e.g. a lot of browsers come bundled with first party VPNs or use their own built-in resolvers.

If you want something more reliable, Firefox on Android with the UBlock Origin and Sponsorblock extensions is still the gold standard. Though do note the Android Firefox is extremely slow compared to the Chromium based browsers.

For app level ads, use an app patcher like https://github.com/morpheapp which can remove all in-app advertisements and inject sponsor blocking code.

Larrikin 28 minutes ago | parent

In what meaningful way is there any difference in speed between Chrome and Firefox on Android?

I also prefer replacing uBlock Origin with Ad Nauseum which is built on top of ubo.

alekescu 48 minutes ago | parent

There is a special irony to an article about ad blocking containing an apparent undisclosed ad for Nord.

Cider9986 38 minutes ago | parent

One time I saw someone trying to hide an Amazon affiliate link in a post by putting the link text as amazon.com/dp/12345 but the link was amazon.com/dp/12345/ref=tracking. There's no affiliate link for Nord here but it's weird to use it as an example over better options: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/

altairprime 30 minutes ago | parent

> an apparent undisclosed ad for Nord

What evidence supports the link referenced being an advertisement? I'm not seeing any referral, tracking, or any URI parameter data at all that would support the claim, and this seems to be their only instance of referring to it — where, in this 'state of the union' helpdesk-style article, one or more such 'VPN provider' links seems particularly relevant to visitors. (I do not use whatever this company's products are and have no opinion either way on them aside from mistrusting the claim presented here.)

janwillemb 32 minutes ago | parent

I point "private DNS" to my VPS with pihole and stunnel, works quite well. Adguard as private DNS is also effective.

somebudyelse 29 minutes ago | parent

Highly recommend https://nextdns.io, great for all kinds of blocking stuff. Plus Firefox or Edge for uBlock support.

pmontra 25 minutes ago | parent

I am using Blockada 5 from https://blokada.org

xnx 4 minutes ago | parent

I want to use something like this, but I don't think I can when also using VPN by Google on an unrooted phone.