FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

You Can Now Block Ads on Your Phone

But should you bother?

AdBlock Plus, one of the more popular ad-blocking browser plugins, today released its new ad-free browser for iOS and re-released its browser for Android. But can it really deliver on all the promises the company has made of being faster, safer, and better than the browser you're currently using?

I gave the iOS browser a test spin and at first blush it seems like a solid app. I checked out a few commonly-browsed sites (TMZ, ESPN, Google) and they indeed loaded quickly and free of ads, with no glitches like what was reported in the beta version of Adblock Plus's Android browser. I even logged into Instagram on the browser and, sure enough, all the sponsored posts had vanished, but it definitely loaded more slowly and was laggy compared to the IG app.

So it raises the question: how annoying are the ads you encounter while browsing on your phone? Is it worth downloading a new browser? Is it worth browsing all of your social feeds on that browser instead of in their respective native apps? I don't usually encounter many intrusive ads during the light mobile browsing I do, so the difference wasn't stark enough to warrant another app eating up space on my phone.

One stand-out exception: YouTube. Each video loaded more quickly, and none of them had any ads play beforehand. If you watch a lot of videos on your phone, it's worth it to try out Adblock Plus's browser. But if you're like me and don't have as much of an issue with ads on your phone, I'd recommend sticking with what's working now.