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Comment by giobox | Hacker News Reader

It’s a real shame you still can’t install a third party content blocker easily in the default browser on Android. Setup a VPN and PiHole for sure works, but my goodness what a lot of effort when simpler approaches exist, even on Safari on iOS... I’m aware other browsers exist that can do this, but this basically forces me to use a different browser on my phone versus my desktop.

Such is the reality of using an OS made by an advertising firm I guess.

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Fortunately on Android you at least can install another browser - Firefox. Works great - well, most of the time... but using it for a day without extensions makes me appreciate it even more.

EDIT: and there is no reason to use a different browser on the phone and desktop, Firefox is available on desktop too. :P

I know it sounds complicated, but it's a one-step process that only increases to pay off the more devices are connected.

I used to have four adblockers on my laptop (two operating systems x 2 browsers), one on my smartphone, one on an additional smartphone I use... and how do I stop my TV and my ebook reader from serving me ads?

Pi-hole requires little to no maintenance, and offers a lot of benefit. Two people have purchased their first Raspberry Pis after I've slipped in "oh and BTW, no ads will load while you're connected to this network" after giving them a WiFi password.

Are there any DNS servers on the public Internet that work similarly?

That's why I pointed out the second option (blokada). It's just a matter of installing it and you've got Android wide adblock, which mostly works even in non-website contexts

But it doesn't work if you're using a VPN... So it's an either pi-hole or blokada situation

Check out the "MACE" function of Private Internet Access VPN as well. It may work out well. I've recently started it on desktop and mobile, and disabled any other blockers. There may be other VPNs with similar functions but I don't know yet.

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/helpdesk/kb/articles/w...

>forces me to use a different browser on my phone versus my desktop

Firefox has a desktop version too. Works well.

Why not install another browser on Android like Firefox? You can even change the system default.

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