Block annoying ads on your Android device

Please note that Adblock Plus has now been removed by Google from the Google Play Store. However, you can download Adblock Plus from the developer’s site.

Adblock Plus is an Android utility that blocks advertisements across the entire operating system.

Does Adblock Plus for Android live up to the great reputation its browser extension the desktop has? In short, no. Not at all. Here’s why.

While it’s great that Adblock Plus doesn’t require root to block ads, it’s actually a bit misleading. Those without root can only block ads when connected to Wi-Fi. If you have root, Adblock Plus will block ads over Wi-Fi and mobile data. Non-rooted Android devices version 3.0 and lower will have to do some manual configuration as well.

On top of requiring root to be fully functional, Adblock Plus has a bunch of quirks. There will be a persistent notification icon letting you know that Adblock Plus is running and blocking ads. You can’t get rid of this notification icon if you like a clean looking notification shade. The reason Adblock Plus has this icon is to prevent the app from being killed by the operating system.

In use, Adblock Plus worked well, blocking ads from most apps. There were several apps that still displayed ads, even after setting up Adblock Plus. This is quite a disappointment as the desktop browser extension is very good at blocking ads from all sources. In browsers, Adblock Plus worked flawlessly.

Adblock Plus also exhibited some increased battery drain while running, but that could be an isolated issue.

Still, Adblock Plus does do something right by making the interface extremely simple to understand and use. The only configuration you may want to change is which ad blocking list to use. There are no options to allow individual apps to have ads.

If you don’t have a rooted Android phone, Adblock Plus is your only choice for blocking ads but if you have a rooted phone, AdFree works much better.

Implemented automatic updatesAdded a dialog to help with the manual proxy configurationSeparated filtering and proxy activation settings to avoid loss of connectivity after manual configurationSwitched to the Holo user interface themeImproved icon hidingImplemented a workaround for a Chrome issue causing blank pagesFixed an issue with URLs containing apostrophes

Changes

• Implemented automatic updatesAdded a dialog to help with the manual proxy configurationSeparated filtering and proxy activation settings to avoid loss of connectivity after manual configurationSwitched to the Holo user interface themeImproved icon hidingImplemented a workaround for a Chrome issue causing blank pagesFixed an issue with URLs containing apostrophes