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Comment by airstrike | Hacker News Reader

Time to install a mobile browser with ad-blocking capabilities. Suggestions? I haven't used Firefox on my phone in years, but I remember it being slower than a snail

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Firefox Focus with tracking protection and content blocking. You can use your favorite browser and use Focus to block ads.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/focus

Firefox mobile has improved a lot recently. I didn't use it for years but now it runs better than chrome. Not to mention reader mode and no ads!

Firefox on android works fine for me and supports all the extensions of their desktop browser.

I was a FF on android fan for year but wouldnt take the initial super long page loads anymore. The first webpage of the day was taking 10+ seconds to load, almost like it was fighting with DNS. I switched to Kiwi Browser and have been super happy. Fork of Chrome, lets you use any extension you want, no tracking and nightmode

Try Blokada (https://blokada.org/), it blocks ads system-wide.

A similar one, also for Android, is Block This https://block-this.com/

(PS By looking at their respective GitHub pages, Blockada seems more actively developed though)

Can you vouch well for this? I'm always concerned with an app that routes all my traffic through a VPN.

It's open source and I haven't heard anything negative about it. Only downside is that using a VPN at the same time is probably (?) impossible.

> I'm always concerned with an app that routes all my traffic through a VPN.

Many of these use the VPN subsystem of Android, but are not actually VPNs -- that is, they aren't routing anything off of your device. Using the VPN subsystem is just a way to be able to filter network traffic without having to have rooted your device.

The only downside is that you can't use such an app and a real VPN at the same time.

Firefox on mobile is really good these days. With tracker-blocking enabled it usually performs better than Chrome for me. Most of the time these days websites are slow because of all the trackers and ad traffic.

They also have some cool features like being able to send tabs between different devices.

Brave browser for Android has served me well since 2017, but I am seeing some AdWords/Adsense crap filtering in every now and then. Still, it's so rare that I find myself having to mention that it does happen.

Firefox works great for me on Android and supports uBlock Origin, Decentraleyes, etc.

I’ve been using Firefox Focus with DDG on mobile for about a year and don’t miss Chrome even a little.

Thanks. I think that's the direction I'm headed as well

If you are on android you can block ads entirely by setting a private DNS provider, and using one that blocks ads. For IOS you can use a VPN to do the same.

iOS has native support for ad blocking services; no need for a VPN. I've been using the Privacy-centric blocker service provided by Firefox Focus.

Looking at the settings in Firefox Focus, it seems that's only picked up by Safari, correct? I guess if I have Firefox Focus installed I might as well just use that as my browser

Yeah, only Safari uses them. The non-Focus Firefox app also has tracking protection built in, if you'd like to have tabs and such.

The main reason that you'd use Safari instead of a different browser is that it has better support for newer standards. Every other iOS browser is powered by an iOS webview, which Apple lets lag behind a bit.

The big difference is that you can block ads, analytics, and other tracking outside of safari using a VPN, or using a private DNS provider for android.

There will be no ads on the mobile site, only the app.

Firefox on mobile has definitely improved a lot over the last couple years. It, plus uBlock Origin makes the web incredibly more tolerable.

I installed Kiwi Broswer and have been super happy with it, a fork of Chrome with no tracking, ad-block and built in nightmode

I use firefox on Android. I think it's gotten better lately.

Brave on iOS is legit

Doesn't Brave substitute their own ads?

You can opt out of that revenue sharing thing if you don't want it.

Ads aren't really the problem for me, it's the trackers.

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