How to block advertisements

Advertisements are pervasive on today’s internet. Here are a few things you can do to reduce the amount of noise in your web experience.

Install uBlock Origin

uBlock Origin is a browser extension that blocks advertisements on most, but not all websites. Unfortunately, Chrome has reduced support for this extension so it’s best to use Firefox to utilize this extension.

For those using uBlock, you can improve its coverage by visiting EasyList, navigating to the EasyList heading and selecting add it to your ad blocker.

If you’re using Firefox on mobile, it’s possible to install uBlock Origin from the add-ons menu.

Use AdGuard DNS

It might also help to configure your DNS servers to AdGuard DNS’ free public server. Just visit the link and expand Option 2: Configure AdGuard DNS manually. Choose your OS and follow the steps. I have this set up on mobile, because mobile experiences are rife with ads. I don’t have much experience with the AdGuard app itself, so I can only vouch for this second method.

It’s worth noting that setting a custom DNS server means that all of your internet traffic filters through this server. Keep in mind that setting a custom DNS server means your device relies on it to resolve websites. If AdGuard’s DNS becomes unreachable, your device may appear to lose internet access. In such cases, you can disable private DNS or revert to your default provider using the same configuration settings.

Android resources

If you know where to look, there are several apps you can download that will ‘patch’ existing apps to give you an ad-free experience. I’ve used apps like this to block ads on Spotify, Reddit, and Twitter to name a few. I won’t get into the details here, but I’m confident that now that you know this exists, you can find them on your own. These apps don’t exist in the App Store, so you must locate a trustworthy .apk file to sideload onto your device. For this reason, it may require a bit of technical expertise.

iOS users have a lot more hurdles when it comes to sideloading apps, but I don’t use Apple devices so there isn’t much I can offer in this area.