AdGuard Pro for iOS will be discontinued due to Apple's policy

The difference is that AdGuard works like a watered down little snitcher — letting you control specific network connections that your phone makes. And the filtering works within and without Safari.

I use it for monitoring the servers that various apps reach out to. Unlike Charles Proxy AdGuard does not allow any insight into contents.

It’s sad how far backward things have gone that we aren’t allowed even that modicum of control of a device we purportedly own. (Absent use of homemade VPN proxy or pi hole.)

This about face for Apple is the first time I’ve seriously considered going to back to Android. Google’s walled garden is much more porous, but it’s really a fool’s errand to look for a smartphone that treats its user with any respect.

> [...] it is advertised nowhere that it can [use a VPN profile or root certificate]

Seems to be the issue isn't "blocking ads" but "you can't do it in $THIS way" with Apple misunderstanding that the app doesn't do $THIS, it actually does $THAT (using NEPacketTunnelProvider.)

I got the free version of AdGuard, which just creates a plain Safari content filter from DNSBL lists you specify yourself, and it works great. Very happy.

The Apple policy here is you can't use the VPN APIs to implement a content blocker. Or more generally, you're not supposed to use the VPN APIs to implement something other than a VPN, although they seem to be ok with some limited exceptions such as Charles Proxy. If the VPN itself offers other features, that falls outside the purview of Apple's policies.

It is not free, however, but I believe they offer a trial still.

On my last Android device, after months of usage, I was blocking on average about 40% of all traffic on my phone -- most of that to trackers and ad networks. On Android it seems like most every app is sucking away at your device, almost none of the tracking and ad network activity is voluntary or opt-in.

Also, you don’t have to worry about a third party ad blocker having access to your browsing history.

Apple allows content blocking in Mobile Safari. There are some limits to the APIs they've provided, and one can quibble about how complete they are, but Apple has literally made an ad-blocking API.

AdGuard Pro's "local VPN" trick was basically a way to be able to block not only ads in Safari, but ads everywhere, including applications that are connecting to ad networks. And I'm pretty sure this is what Apple is ultimately trying to stop here.

You can argue that ads are just absolute evil everywhere and that the distinction between in-app ads and web ads is arbitrary. And, I guess, maybe? Maybe we should have the absolute right, as the device owner, to say to app developers, "Hey, if you were stupid enough to make this app free and try to get money from it by showing me ads, tough cookies for you."

But, as the device owner, you also have the absolute right to, well, choose what apps you run, in a way that really isn't true for web sites. I mean, yes, you have the choice of which web sites you visit, but in practice it's way harder to say "if you don't like web sites with horrible, intrusive ads, just don't visit them" than it is to say "if you don't like ad-supported apps, don't download them." And while this is absolutely a subjective perception that may apply only to me and no one else, it would feel just a little bit sleazy to me to use an ad-supported app for free while blocking the ads. If I like the app, I'll pay to make the ads go away if that's an option; if the ads can't be turned off and they're too intrusive, I'll simply stop using the app.

AdGuard didn’t, so Apple stopped them.

Absolutely no surprise here.