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Block Ads in Apps on Android

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Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#111

Post by PkBuzios »

StreakyCobra wrote: post #43
phkahler wrote: post #26

I wish the play store would just let me filter based on app intrusiveness. Let me find things that don't use ads, don't have in-app purchases, and don't collect data. Looking at "paid" apps is NOT equivalent. Then I can maybe read reviews and get what I want. Once the quality bar has been raised I don't have any problem paying a few bucks (or more) for an app that behaves the way I want.

You can use Yalp Store [1]. It allows to search and filter Google Play Store apps based on (i) Apps with ads, (ii) Paid apps and (iii) Apps using GSF. Another reflex is to look on the F-Droid Store if an equivalent FOSS application exists before looking for one in the Google Play Store. There are some excellent apps there, such as NewPipe [2] for instance! [1] https://github.com/yeriomin/YalpStore [2] https://newpipe…

I second this. Finding apps became a lot easyer and faster with F-Droid/Yalp combo. I can look for a free app on F-Droid and if it does not exist I can find a alternative on Play Store, an all with no GSF installed on the phone.

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#112

Post by PkBuzios »

gattilorenz wrote: post #2

Another alternative, on a rooted phone, is AdAway, which can be obtained on F-Droid ( https://f-droid.org/en/ ). I'm more than satisfied with it.

AdAway is, until today, the best option. All the other root-free alternatives requires the app to run on the background which may consume resources, battery or even crash and stop functioning.

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#113

Post by turtlebits »

Marsymars wrote: post #97

I'm all-in for blocking ads, but I've found full-OS ad-blockers to be entirely unnecessary - I simply don't use apps with ads. The few apps with ads that I sometimes can't avoid aren't fixable by ad-blockers. (e.g. ads in Google Maps)

I use Blokada and it blocks a lot of telemetry data. Saves my data usage as well.

I don't use any apps with ads, but Blokada has reported blocking ~100k requests a week on my phone.

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#115

Post by Marsymars »

turtlebits wrote: post #113
Marsymars wrote: post #97

I'm all-in for blocking ads, but I've found full-OS ad-blockers to be entirely unnecessary - I simply don't use apps with ads. The few apps with ads that I sometimes can't avoid aren't fixable by ad-blockers. (e.g. ads in Google Maps)

I use Blokada and it blocks a lot of telemetry data. Saves my data usage as well. I don't use any apps with ads, but Blokada has reported blocking ~100k requests a week on my phone.

Does it have an effective breakdown of number and destination of requests per app?

I prefer to generally leave telemetry enabled, and simply not use apps from publishers whom I don't trust to use it responsibly.

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#116

Post by deogeo »

Forbo wrote: post #103
on_and_off wrote: post #99

>It's important that free apps continue to be made, and app developers need money to go on doing what they do. So if you can't stand ads in your apps, try to support them in another way, by making a donation or paying a few bucks for the full version of their app. It feels more than a little disingenuous to post that at the end of a post explaining how to cut the revenue source of devs. If you don't want ads, how abo…

Because paying for something doesn't necessarily mean that they won't continue to use your information in the surveillance economy. You might not see ads anymore, but that doesn't mean that they're respecting your privacy.

Smart TVs are a good example of this. And most Android phones. And some US ISPs. And Windows 10. And the Sidewalk Labs projects. I'm sure there are many other examples. You cannot expect what are effectively hostile entities to treat you well, just because you give them money.

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#117

Post by justanother- »

https://www.netguard.me/

This is all you need. Block access to all addresses that have nothing to do with app vendor, not just for the sake of ads, but also to prevent your data leaking to data brokers.

I have reviewed the code, if you pay the author "donation", all the ads he uses are disabled.

You can also do much more, but you need to root your phone. Xposed framework, minmin guard, xprivacylua (fake information about your phone to the application, from phone number to location (I am regulary on south pole)), hide root,...

And don't be afraid to root your phone, it only means that you have taken control for YOUR device.

If you want to get rid of google that is doable too. Flash this lineage.microg.org . It will mimick google spyware (google framework) to apps and use yalp store (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.yeriomin.yalpstor...) to download applications from play store, while "Maps" application (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.axet.maps/) can replace google maps.

We are in 2019, there is no need beeing held as hostage to your phone.

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#118

Post by dfxm12 »

michaelmrose wrote: post #89
vvanders wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only site I've seen break was Burrow ironically enough, couldn't get through the checkout flow which is pretty darn stupid for a purchased product. Our solution is simple, we've got two SSIDs, one w/ PH, one without. They route to separate VLANs and each VLAN uses a different gateway+DHCP with pihole or standard DNS. Fixing a website that doesn't work is simple as hopping over on another SSID. We're using UniFi g…

Regarding the web, browser based blocking still makes more sense. If I have 2 tabs one which works with adblock and one which does not I can simply click an icon to enable ads on the one. Changing networks seems like a pain in the neck.

I think pihole makes it reasonably easy to disable for some amount of time or until you switch it back on. I know "reasonable" has different meanings to different people though.

For example, I don't think changing networks is a pain in the neck. It's just 3 clicks on my android phone or 2 on Windows 10. This is compared to 3 clicks to turn off a browser based ad blocker.

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#119

Post by gwbas1c »

Honestly, I want something that blocks spam notifications.

Specifically, things like "you have a free credit" notification from Lyft, or Amazon's "Check out our new sale" notification.

My phone should not ding for nonsense like that. That is SPAM, and that is not something that I need to know immediately.

The problem is that apps like Lyft and Amazon have rather important notifications, so blocking all notifications from those apps is not possible.

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#120

Post by jazoom »

chrisper wrote: post #78
Dolores12 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No matter what time frame 1-2% is 1-2%.

The time very much matters. 1-2% per hour is much different than 1-2% per day or per week or whatever.

I assume that's Android's stats about what % of battery each app uses. If so, time doesn't add anything.
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