Luckily, eliminating the majority of the ads on your Android is a lot easier than you might think.
Download the app
Head over to Adblock Plus site and download the app for Android. You may know the name of this app because of their add-ons and extensions for all the major web browsers. Once downloaded, you can open the application. Adblock Plus will start and open the settings page. You will not see too much on the settings page though. The settings page currently have three different options. The first was the enable filtering. This is what turns the app on and off. The next option in the settings is your filter subscriptions. By default, the subscription chosen is EasyList. If you live in a different country such as Germany or Italy, there are lists specific for you. In fact there are 11 total to choose from. The is automatically set to refresh periodically.
The last choice is to simply hide icon displaying in your notification bar.
What you should notice
Once you have Adblock Plus for Android up and running, you should immediately feel the lack of display ads in applications. Here’s a before and after of a banner ad in the footer of a popular horror scope app.
Another thing you might notice is the ads are removed from most sites when using the built-in browser on your Android such as Chrome. If you are a Firefox for mobile user or use one of the other third-party browsers, the ads may still be there. The reason being is that these applications do not support the built-in proxy system of the Android device. Many times, Adblock Plus will have some sort of extension to use on these browsers.
What if it doesn’t work?
Adblock Plus should work on the majority of Android devices running 3.1 or higher. If not, you can check out the configuration page for instructions on how to make it work.
Testing Adblock Plus
Testing Adblock Plus is pretty simple. Open up some of the games you’re used to playing and see if ads are gone. Many times we just ignore them and don’t even notice them. But when the ad is actually blocked, it may seem like there’s something missing on the page because you’re so used to seeing it.
Conclusion
I was really excited to see Adblock Plus had an application for Android used for blocking in-app ads. Sometimes the placement of ads can deter from the enjoyment of the game. This will help bring some of that fun back. While it may not be 100%, having the majority of the apps gone has been great. Another thing though, the ads could be the source of income for the developers. If you cut off their income source, they probably won’t be keen to provide the app for free anymore. What is your thoughts on blocking ads? Do you think it is ethical?
