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January 24, 2023
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Best Ad Blockers for Android in 2023

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Permission
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Ads are getting more intrusive every day.

No matter if you are watching a video, playing a game, or surfing the web, advertisers will find you with their offers, interrupting your favorite activities.

While many content creators make their living from placing ads in their apps or websites, bad advertising can easily ruin the user experience.

Fortunately, ad blockers are becoming increasingly popular on Android devices, allowing users to eliminate the advertisements that annoy them.

And, in this article, we will explore the best ad blockers for Android smartphones.

What Is an Android Ad Blocker?

Before we show you the best solutions, let’s take a closer look at the basics first.

An Android ad blocker is a software that eliminates or alters advertising content on webpages, applications, and other places within the Android ecosystem.

However, there is a great difference between Android ad-block solutions in how and what content they eliminate on your smartphone.

While some ad blockers will replace ads with alternative content, other solutions will leave holes or broken links at the location where ads would be normally displayed.

Furthermore, some ad blocker solutions provide system-wide protection against advertisements, while others only disable ads when you are browsing the web on your smartphone.

Android users can also set up ad blocker solutions that are primarily focused on eliminating the advertising trackers that compromise their privacy.

In sum, Android ad blockers help to:

  1. Eliminate disturbing ads to create a decent user experience on Android devices
  2. Get rid of advertising trackers to restore user privacy
  3. Protect against malicious software, links, and websites by automatically disabling them
  4. Increase your Android smartphone’s performance as poorly designed ads often slow down your device

Now that you know the basics, let’s see the best ad blockers for Android devices.

1. AdGuard for Android

Overview

AdGuard is among the most popular ad blockers for Android.

While AdGuard provides system-wide protection against advertisements on Android devices, you don’t have to root your smartphone to use the application.

In addition to blocking ads both in apps and web browsers, AdGuard allows Android users to customize where and how ads are filtered on your smartphone.

How It Works

Despite the popularity of the software, AdGuard has been removed from the Google Play Store along with most Android ad blocker solutions.

Therefore, you have to download and install the ad blocker from an APK file.

AdGuard blocks advertisements on various locations, eliminating ads from games, browsers, websites, and other places within the Android ecosystem.

The company updates its ad filters regularly to provide a (near) ad-free experience for Android users.AdGuard also functions as anti-tracker software to preserve your privacy by preventing online trackers and analytics software from collecting data on your device.

Furthermore, AdGuard features a built-in VPN, a firewall, as well as protection against phishing and malware attacks.

Cost

AdGuard has both a free and a premium version for Android.

The difference between the two is that the prior eliminates ads in web browsers only while the paid version provides system-wide protection, blocking advertisements from all the apps you have installed on your smartphone.

Pros
  1. AdGuard is considered a prominent ad blocker for Android
  2. AdGuard’s premium version provides system-wide protection against advertisements, meaning that the software can eliminate ads from all the webpages you browse and the apps you use on Android
  3. You don’t have to root your device to use the Android ad blocker
  4. Additional tools to protect your device, including a built-in VPN, anti-tracking software, and firewall
  5. High customizability for filtering ads
  6. Available for various operating systems (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac), which comes in handy when you subscribe to premium, as you can use your subscription on multiple devices
Cons
  1. The free version of the software only blocks ads in web browsers
  2. Since it’s not available in the Google Play Store, you have to install AdGuard from an APK file

2. Blokada

Overview

Blokada is an open-source ad blocker that is available for both iOS and Android.

Despite that the Android ad blocker is free, and you don’t have to root your device, it provides system-wide protection against smartphone advertisements.

Therefore, Blokada can eliminate ads in both the browsers and the apps you use on your Android device.

How It Works

Similarly to the premium version of AdGuard, Blokada disables the ads displayed on the web pages and in the apps you use on your Android smartphone.

To prevent ads from showing on your device, Blokada utilizes a list of blacklisted URLs to set up a local VPN and block requests from each of these domains.

Unfortunately, like in AdGuard’s case, you can’t install Blokada from the Play Store.

Instead, you have to download an APK file and use it to set up the Android ad blocker on your device.Still, it’s super easy to get started with Blokada as you don’t have to create an account to use the app, which is quite rare among Android applications.

Like AdGuard, Blokada allows you to whitelist the domains and apps you want to support, as well as to customize your blacklists.

Cost

As Blokada is an open-source project that operates on a donation basis, it’s free to use the Android ad block software.

Pros
  1. Blokada provides efficient system-wide protection against ads on Android devices
  2. You can use the Android ad blocker for free
  3. You don’t have to create an account with the service provider to get started
  4. No need to root your device
  5. Multi-device support (iOS, Android)
  6. High level of customization
  7. Excellent reviews
Cons
  1. The app is not available in the Play Store, you have to manually install it via from an APK file instead
  2. Only available for smartphones (Android, iOS), no support for desktop devices

3. AdAway

Overview

AdAway is an open-source ad-block software that you can use on your Android device free of charge.

The major difference between the previous two Android ad blockers and AdAway is that you must root your smartphone to use the latter software.

However, if your device is rooted, installing AdAway will effectively block ads on your entire system, including most of the websites and applications you use.

How It Works

AdAway uses the hosts file to block ads on your device, which includes a list of mappings between IP addresses and hostnames.

When the Android ad-block software receives a request, it directs it to a blank IP address to prevent the ad from showing.

By default, AdAway uses the 127.0.0.1 address. However, you have the option to change this to the one you prefer.

In addition to running your own web server, the Android ad blocker allows users to customize the hosts file as well as AdAway’s blacklists and whitelists.

AdAway requires users to root their devices because the hosts file is located in the read-only “system” folder.

However, you also need to provide write access to AdAway, which you can achieve by rooting your Android device.

As a side note, like with the previous ad blockers in this list, you have to install AdAway via an APK file.

Cost

Like Blokada, AdAway collects donations to operate, and you can use it at no cost.

Pros
  1. AdAway blocks ads very effectively throughout your system by using the hosts file on rooted devices to redirect requests to a blank IP address
  2. You don’t need to pay a dime to use the Android ad blocker
  3. Ample options for customization
Cons
  1. You have to possess at least basic technical skills or knowledge to root your device and install the ad blocker for Android
  2. AdAway is only available for Android devices

4. FAB Adblocker Browser

Overview

Now that we have explored three system-wide ad blockers for Android, let’s see a solution that’s a bit more simple than the previous ones.

FAB Adblocker Browser (formerly Free Adblocker Browser) is a straightforward app that prevents ads from showing on your device while surfing the web.

How It Works

To get started, you have to install the FAB Adblocker Browser from the Google Play Store.

The app works very similarly to ad-block extensions for desktop browsers. However, contrary to the latter solutions, you have to replace your current browser and use the FAB Adblocker Browser instead to surf the web.

The FAB Adblocker Browser will prevent ads from displaying on the websites you visit while blocking trackers as well as protecting your device against malware, viruses, and other malicious software.

By doing so – based on multiple independent reviews displayed on the Android ad blocker’s website – the FAB Adblocker Browser allows users to load webpages up to twice as fast as popular web browsers (e.g., Firefox or Google Chrome).

Optionally, the Android ad-block software allows you to whitelist the websites where you don’t want to prevent ads from showing.

Cost

The FAB Adblocker Browser uses a freemium model to operate.

While the app will block ads and trackers in the free version, a paid subscription will grant you access to premium browser-related features, such as background video playing, reader mode, and customized themes.

Pros
  1. All essential ad and tracker blocking features are included in the app’s free version
  2. The Free Adblocker Browser blocks most ads and trackers on the web
  3. You can browse the web faster than with browsers that lack ad-block capabilities
  4. The Android ad blocker is available in the Play Store
Cons
  1. No system-wide protection against ads
  2. You have to replace your current browser with the Free Adblocker Browser to eliminate ads and trackers while surfing the web
  3. You have to use the ad blocker’s paid version to access additional browser features

5. Firefox Focus

Overview

Developed by the non-profit Mozilla, Firefox Focus is a privacy browser for Android and iOS that features a built-in blocker to automatically eliminate trackers and ads on the web.

How It Works

Firefox Focus is maybe the most user-friendly Android ad blocker we have shown you in this article.

After installing the app from the Play Store, you can use the privacy browser without any configuration to surf the web privately.

To achieve that, Firefox Focus blocks and eliminates common web trackers, cookies, ads, passwords, and analytics records from your browser.

As a plus, Firefox Focus deletes all your browsing history automatically after closing the application.

By preventing parts of web pages from loading, you have to download fewer elements while browsing the web.As a result, Firefox Focus allows you to load web pages faster and may decrease your mobile data usage.

Cost

Using Firefox Focus is completely free on every device, including Android smartphones.

Pros
  1. With built-in blockers, Firefox Focus eliminates ads, trackers, and other intrusive content to achieve a truly private web browsing experience
  2. You don’t need to configure the ad-block software to get started
  3. The app is available on all devices free of charge
  4. Play Store availability
  5. Multi-device support (Android, iOS)
  6. In addition to blocking trackers and ads, Firefox Focus automatically deletes your browsing data after you have finished surfing the web
  7. Fast web browsing and less (potential) data usage
Cons
  1. Firefox Focus is limited to eliminating ads and trackers only on the web
  2. You have to replace your current browser with Firefox Focus to benefit from the app’s ad-blocking capabilities
  3. The app doesn’t suit users who prefer to save information about the websites they often visit (e.g., passwords, bookmarks)

Achieve an Ad-Free Experience With Android Ad Blockers

With all the interruptive ads and trackers, it is essential to use an ad blocker to protect your privacy and achieve a better user experience on Android.

In addition to blocking ads, trackers, and other intrusive content, using an Android ad blocker could also speed up your device, decrease your smartphone’s data and energy use, and protect against malicious software.

You can choose from multiple Android ad blocker types, such as (rooted and non-rooted) system-wide ad-block software, as well as ad blocker and privacy browsers. By the way, if you’re also interested in Ad Blockers for the iPhone, just click on this link—we also cover that.

Based on the rising popularity of ad blockers, it has become clear that traditional forms of digital advertising are neither efficient nor consumer-friendly.

To solve this issue, we have created Permission, a new kind of advertising model that provides an interruption-free experience to users and rewards them for engaging with advertisers.

While this allows brands to increase their ROI and build long-term relationships with their customers, consumers receive ASK cryptocurrency for providing permission to learn about products and services from advertisers. Consumers receive personal and relevant ads and are compensated for their time and data shared. Consumers can hold, exchange, or spend their ASK on the Permission.io Store.

To learn more about this innovative ad model that gives consumers a piece of the advertising pie, check out Permission's official website or join the conversation via our official Twitter page.

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Your ASK Wallet, Now Powered by Coinbase

Sep 22nd, 2026
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We've partnered with Coinbase to bring best-in-class wallet technology to our community.

Today we're updating the technology that powers your ASK wallet. Here's what's changing, what it means for you, and what stays exactly the same.

What's changing

We've moved your Permission wallet to Coinbase's platform. What that means in plain language is this: starting today, you are in full control of your ASK. When you click to send, redeem, or manage your balance, the transaction happens from your account, signed by your login. We no longer hold your wallet keys. Coinbase does, on your behalf, under your authority.

We chose Coinbase's embedded wallet specifically because it brings institutional-grade security to our users without requiring you to manage anything yourself. The infrastructure is Coinbase's. The wallet is yours.

Beyond the custody change, our users now have a wallet that can go wherever they go: exportable, cross-chain ready, and backed by a platform that serves millions of people around the world. We're proud to bring that to our community.

What it means to control your own keys

As Permission has grown, we felt strongly that your funds should be held by a platform built specifically for that purpose, with the security standards and regulatory rigor that come with it. Moving to Coinbase's embedded wallet reflects that commitment.

With today's change, Coinbase secures your private key inside their systems, and only your Permission login can authorize transactions. When you click to send or redeem ASK, the transaction is authorized by you, through your login. We are no longer part of that process.

What this means practically: your wallet operates on its own, independent of Permission. Treat your Permission login like you would a bank password. It is now the key to your wallet. If you ever want to take your wallet entirely outside of Permission, Coinbase supports key export and that option is yours.

What Coinbase sees

Because Coinbase is now part of the infrastructure, your email address, account identifier, and wallet information are shared with them for the purpose of operating the wallet. For details on how Coinbase handles this data, you can review their embedded wallet documentation and their privacy information.

For how Permission handles your data, our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy govern that relationship, as they always have.

What stays the same

Everything you experience in the app. Earning ASK, redeeming it, transferring it, viewing your balance, managing your family. None of that changes.

And, what does change, we're excited about: key export, cross-chain support, and institutional-grade security. These are capabilities that would have taken years to build in-house and that Coinbase has spent that time perfecting. We chose to partner with the best-in-class, and our product and users will be better for it.

If you have questions, support is always here.

The Permission Team 🤝

What Is Family Friendly AI™?

Sep 9th, 2026
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Only 15% of people globally say they trust AI systems, and 72% of parents are concerned about AI’s impact on their children.

AI is quickly becoming part of everyday family life, but Big Tech wasn’t built with families in mind. Family Friendly AI is technology intentionally designed for families, giving parents visibility into their children’s digital lives, guidance when they need it, and tools to encourage positive behavior.

5 Things That Make AI Family Friendly

1. Your family owns its data.

‍Your family’s data is never sold. It belongs to your family, and you stay in control of it.

2. Parents know what’s happening online.

‍Family Friendly AI gives parents visibility into their children’s digital lives, helping them fully understand how their children use and interact with technology.

3. It motivates children with rewards and incentives.

‍Parents can set rewards and incentives to encourage positive behaviors and help their children build better habits around technology and beyond.

4. It gives parents coaching and inspiration.

‍Parenting in a digital world comes with challenges that screen-time limits alone can’t help with. Family Friendly AI gives parents personalized AI-insights and guidance to help them navigate what their children are doing online and decide what to do next.

5. It earns families' trust.

‍Technology for families should have a higher bar. The companies building it should stand behind it with an unconditional, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee.

It’s time for AI, crypto, and the technology shaping our children’s lives to meet the family-friendly standard.

Big Tobacco Had Its Reckoning. Now It’s Big Tech’s Turn.

Aug 12th, 2026
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The floodgates are open.

Thousands of lawsuits are moving forward. States are writing new rules for kids online. And lawmakers are beginning to tell AI companies what they can and cannot do when children use their products.

And you don't have to look far to see it happening...

The courts: 3,000+ lawsuits get the green light

On August 10, the Ninth Circuit allowed more than 3,000 lawsuits against Meta, Google/YouTube, TikTok and Snap to move forward.

The cases allege that the companies deliberately designed features of their platforms to be addictive, particularly for young users.

The tech companies had argued that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protected them from the claims. The court rejected their attempt to use Section 230 to stop the litigation at this stage, finding that it provides a defense rather than immunity from being sued.

At their core, these cases are allegations about the platforms themselves: how they were designed, how they kept people engaged, and what responsibility the companies bear for the consequences.

The companies will still have the opportunity to defend themselves against those allegations.

But with more than 3,000 cases now getting the chance to be heard, this is getting harder to argue away.

New Jersey: families get a way to enforce the rules

One day later, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed the New Jersey Kids Code Act into law.

The law establishes new design and privacy requirements for covered online services likely to be accessed by minors. Among other provisions, it requires high privacy settings by default, restricts certain push notifications, prohibits dark patterns for minors, limits how children's personal data can be used and retained, and places restrictions on targeted advertising.

But one provision in particular changes the accountability equation: a private right of action.

An individual under 18 who is injured by a violation can bring a claim under the law, with statutory damages of $5,000 per violation. Parents may also bring an action on a minor's behalf.

Which is legal language for something pretty simple: families don't have to wait around for a regulator to act. They can take companies to court themselves.

Colorado: AI safety starts becoming a legal requirement

Then there's Colorado.

Earlier this year, Governor Jared Polis signed Colorado HB 26-1263, establishing specific requirements for operators of conversational AI services.

And this one is worth paying attention to because the law doesn't simply tell AI companies to "keep kids safe." It starts defining what that actually means.

Operators must estimate users' ages. When dealing with minors, the law requires recurring disclosures that they are interacting with AI rather than a person and establishes protections around sexually explicit interactions.

It also addresses one of the most unsettling questions surrounding companion-style AI: emotional dependence.

The law requires safeguards designed to prevent conversational AI from producing statements that simulate emotional dependence. It also requires protocols for responding to suicidal ideation and self-harm, privacy and account-management tools for minors and parents or guardians, and reporting requirements intended to help regulators evaluate whether those safeguards are actually working.

The law takes effect January 1, 2027.

For companies building conversational AI, that's a meaningful shift. Child safety is moving beyond a set of voluntary guardrails companies write for themselves. In Colorado, some of those guardrails are becoming law.

It's no coincidence that this is all happening at once.

Big Tobacco didn't wake up one morning and discover the world had changed its mind. The reckoning came piece by piece, until lawsuits became regulation and an industry that had spent decades setting its own standards was finally forced to take responsibility for the harm its products caused.

We're watching that shift happen again.

For years, the responsibility for keeping kids safe online has fallen on parents.

Set the parental controls. Check the privacy settings. Watch the screen time. Know which apps they're using. Figure out who they're talking to. Keep up with every new platform, algorithm and now AI chatbot entering their lives.

All while the technology on the other side of the screen gets more sophisticated by the month.

Now courts and lawmakers are starting to ask the companies building that technology a much more uncomfortable question:

If children are using your products, what are you doing to keep them safe?

For families, that's the shift that matters most.

This isn't another round of false promises to "do better."

This is legislation. These are lawsuits. This is accountability beginning to have teeth.

Parents will always have the role of protecting their children online. We happen to believe they should have far more visibility and control over the technology entering their families' lives, not less.

But parents cannot be the entire safety system.

The law is making clear that the companies designing the products, writing the algorithms and building the AI our kids interact with have a responsibility, too.

And when they fail to meet it, they'll finally be held accountable.

ChatGPTs Births A Parenting Tool That Needs Some Image Repair

Aug 4th, 2026
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Sam Altman keeps pitching AI as a co-parent. The reason parents aren't buying isn't nostalgia, it's the lawsuits.

Last Friday, Sam Altman had an idea he was excited about. Hook your family calendar up to ChatGPT, tell it what your kids are into, and every morning on the drive to school it'll produce a little podcast: one kid's soccer game that afternoon, another kid's birthday coming up, maybe some news. He called it a "cool use case."

What should’ve felt really innovative, landed like the opening scene of a bleak dystopian movie. Two kids in the back, one parent up front, and a smooth synthetic voice narrating, to everyone present, the lives of everyone present. "Later today, Maya has soccer." Maya, who has soccer, looks out the window. Nobody says anything, because the podcast is saying it for them.

The internet population caught what we caught. The reply that stuck came from Alex Hirsch, creator of Disney’s Animated series, Gravity Falls. It was seven poignant words: "What if you just talked to your children?" That was the entire rebuttal, and it traveled a great deal further than the thing it was rebutting. Altman's post drew somewhere around 9,600 likes. Hirsch's reply cleared 120,000. On the CEO's own platform, the crowd took a vote, and the crowd chose the small talk.

Now, we want to be fair here, because the easy thing is to dunk and move on. But we’re parents here at Permission and anyone who has done the 7:40 a.m. drive on four hours of sleep, refereeing a backseat dispute about who touched whom first, knows the exact fantasy of a button that handles the morning. That instinct isn't a character flaw. It's a Tuesday.

But this wasn't a one-off. Altman has been quietly auditioning AI for the co-parent role for a while now. On The Tonight Show in December 2025 he said he couldn't imagine having to "raise a newborn without ChatGPT" then added that people had managed the trick for a few hundred thousand years without it. Also, last year, in a podcast hosted by Andrew Mayne, Altman admitted that people might form “problematic parasocial relationships” to a chatbot. (You know, the one-sided kind that we usually reserve for celebrities we've never met.) He sees the hazards clearly. He's pitching the product anyway.

When visibility turns into vulnerability.

The reason parents flinched at the idea of carpooling with a chatbot for school drop off isn't that they're allergic to convenience. It's that the company making the offer is, right now, being sued by multiple families who say its chatbot played a role in their loved ones' spiraling delusions and, in the worst cases, their deaths. OpenAI says it is continually improving how its models handle sensitive conversations, and that work genuinely matters. But you can see the problem. "Let me into your calendar, your commute, and your kids personal details" is a big ask from anyone. It is a much bigger ask from a company currently explaining itself in court.

Trust isn't a feature you ship in the next update. It's something people hand you slowly, and take back all at once.

Here's where we should admit an interest. We build Permission on a belief that sounds boring until you sit with it: your data belongs to you. With Permission your kids’ browsing history doesn’t get shipped out to the open internet. Not to a model, not to a growth chart, not to whoever posts the next cool use case. And the closer AI creeps toward our kids (and it is creeping, because kids are already asking it everything) the more one question starts to outrank all the others:

Where is the line between parenting and outsourcing parenting?

Because "parenting tool" is doing a lot of quiet work in that phrase. A tool is a hammer. It lives in a drawer, it does one honest thing, and it does not ask to read your child's messages or move into the family calendar. When a company calls its chatbot a "parenting tool," it's worth asking, gently, which word they mean. The tool part, or the parenting part.

We happen to think AI can be genuinely, unglamorously useful to families. Not by doing the talking for you, but by handing you the context you'd otherwise miss instead of a thousand panicked notifications, and then getting out of the way so you can make the call. That's a real distinction, and it deserves its own piece.

So take this as Part One: the news, the flinch, and the reason the flinch is earned. In Part Two, we'll make the harder and more hopeful argument that you can let AI help you parent without completely handing over your family secrets. There is a version of this where the grown-ups stay in charge. We think it's the only version worth building.

For now, the seven best words anyone has offered on the whole affair still belong to Hirsch. So we'll give him the last one, too.

What if you just talked to your children?

‍