9 ms·
Introducing Ad Blocker for Firefox on iOS
- cedws 1mo agoCan it block YouTube ads? Would be a killer feature.
- overflowy 1mo agoNope. Only Browser that can on iOS is Brave.
- ssl-3 1mo agoWith Safari and the very first free-to-use extension I picked years ago (AdGuard, IIRC), I don't see any YouTube ads on iOS.
- kioleanu 1mo agoI don’t have YouTube ads with Safari and AdGuard
- __david__ 1mo agoI just tried AdGuard with safari and got YouTube ads. Do you have to configure something special?
- ssl-3 1mo agoI will check what particular settings I have for AdGuard when I get back home this evening. I don't recall anything particularly hairy but it has been a few years.
- kioleanu 1mo agoThere‘s a checkbox called “Enhanced Protection” (name might vary, I have the app in another language) that specifically says it’s for stuff like YouTube
- not-so-darkstar 1mo agodo you use the AdGuard app or just the DNS?
- hmokiguess 1mo agoDuckDuckGo Browser can as well
- red369 1mo agoSafari with the uBlock Origin Lite extension works well for me - even with "Web page Contents and Browsing History" permission set to 'Deny' for all websites.
- skarz 1mo agoFor that, there's ProTube[1]. On the surface it behaves like YouTube Premium, under the hood it's just the mobile version of YouTube bundled into an iOS app. I have no idea why ads aren't served, I analyzed the network requests with Fiddler Everywhere and saw nothing nefarious. [1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/protube-block-ads-on-video/id6748081431 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/protube-block-ads-on-video/id6...
- flyingshelf 1mo agoWhy not use YouTube in Safari then? Haven't seen ads in years. Plenty of options to block them already.
- skarz 1mo agoDoes YouTube in Safari play in background/with the screen off?
- flyingshelf 1mo agoI use yPlayer for that, plus SponsorBlock
- qwerpy 1mo agoI’m doing it right now. It does pause when you switch away from safari but you swipe down to get the control center and then resume play.
- red369 1mo agoI like "Vinegar - Tube Cleaner" for this. It's not a perfect solution - I have occasionally noticed it leading to some buggy behaviour in the YouTube/YouTube Music sites using Safari, but nothing anywhere near as bad as using those websites without it! The only odd behaviour I can call to mind was one time that it continued playing audio when I answered a phone call. It was easy to stop the music playing, and the other person on the call couldn't hear the music. I was actually disappointed that the other person couldn't hear the music, and I've been disappointed every time I've taken a phone call since and the music hasn't continued playing. I wish that was a feature :) I think Vinegar was well worth the small one-time price, and I like supporting the developer. I've heard that Brave allows playing with the screen off, but I like my setup enough that I don't want to install Brave just for that.
- nonameiguess 1mo agoDidn't see it even after updating, then read https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/block-ads-firefox-ios https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/block-ads-firefox-ios: > This feature is experimental and is being introduced to the Firefox user base through a progressive rollout. It may not yet be available to all users. Additionally, remote improvements must be enabled. Apparently, you can only block ads if you allow Mozilla telemetry. Thanks, dicks.
- drewg123 1mo agoI HATE it when a company does a staged rollout of something after making a big announcement. If you're going to announce something, then don't stage the rollout. Its off by default after all..
- empyrrhicist 1mo agoThere are some options under the debug menu which look relevant, but I wasn't able to get it to enroll.
- ssl-3 1mo agoApparently, remote improvements became separated from telemetry in Firefox version 148: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/remote-improvements#w_what-are-remote-improvements https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/remote-improvements#w_w...
- thesuitonym 1mo agoIf Mozilla put even half as much time into working on Firefox as they do tarnishing its reputation, they'd dominate the market.
- yboris 1mo agoDeeply frustrating - I felt like Mozilla was gaslighting me -- I spent 3 minutes double-checking that even after updating Firefox minutes ago the option is still not visible to me. Making an announcement when fewer than 40% of your customers will see the feature fees like (unintentional) gaslighting.
- tomhow 1mo ago
- WD-42 1mo agoIt's been days (weeks?) and I'm still waiting for the option to appear for me. These "experiments" are super annoying when you are on what I'm assuming is the long tail of a rollout but the marketing/blog posts speak of the feature like it's already launched. If there's someone at Mozilla reading this: turn it on already! I want to get off Orion, it's so buggy, but the internet is unusable without an ad blocker.
- embedding-shape 1mo ago> but the marketing/blog posts speak of the feature like it's already launched. Yeah, seemingly tons of companies do this in a very weird way. Either make the switch 100% once you publish the press release, or wait until you reach 100% then publish. Starting the experiment with gradual rollout and then making the press release immediately seems like asking for potential problems and confusion among users.
- Wowfunhappy 1mo agoBut consider what the alternative looks like: People randomly see unexpected options in their apps, go to look for information about them, and don't find anything, or find some random Reddit discussion where no one is sure what's going on.
- alentred 29d agoIf the new feature looks random and unexpected and causes users to go to Reddit -the developer is doing terribly bad UX, and equally bad marketing and customer support. A proper announcement done the day of the release, or an embedded notification like what Firefox already does (a "What's new" tab) that can be easily dismissed without any "Reminder me later" cr*p solves the issue.
- evilduck 29d agoYeah release notes, in-app help, intuitive UIs, and version documentation hosted on your own website are definitely not possible. Gotta instead cater to the LCD of people who won't be using Firefox in the first place, it's reddit spam or nothing.
- NikxDa 1mo agoI was going to give credit to the direction Mozilla was taking here after their... questionable decisions in the past few year(s). Only to see that this is neither generally available, nor can you use it without enabling telemetry. I don't know who makes these decisions inside Mozilla, but I just don't get it.
- KennyBlanken 1mo ago[flagged]
- rrr_oh_man 1mo agoMr Robot? What?
- pebble 1mo agoIn 2017 Mozilla silently installed an extension promoting the TV show in everyone's Firefox.
- Dylan16807 1mo agoThe extension did not do anything unless you put in a secret setting. It wasn't promoting anything. If this had been a hardcoded easter egg there would have been no real complaints. But showing up as a mystery extension spooked some people, and then misreporting made it spread a lot further than if all the reporting was accurate.
- Melatonic 1mo agoI just rewatched Mr Robot and that actually sounds cool. What was the secret setting ?
- Dylan16807 1mo agoOnce you get the extension installed, you open up about:config and add a boolean preference "extensions.pug.lookingglass" set to true. There might have been another way to do it later but we'll never know.
- ChrisArchitect 1mo agoPreviously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49319633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49319633
- tomhow 1mo agoFirefox for iOS now has a native adblocker - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49319633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49319633 - Aug 2026 (279 comments)
- overflowy 1mo agoFYI: Doesn't block YouTube ads.
- quaintdev 1mo agoGoogle will stop paying them if they tried that.
- nkozyra 1mo agoA weird line to draw since Google still owns the general ad web space.
- doikor 1mo agoIt doesn’t cost cost google money to show that content. (It does cost someone else who google would be giving a cut of the ad revenue) YouTube videos actually have some real world disk space, bandwidth, etc costs just to show so if google doesn’t get to show an ad they lose money instead of an opportunity to make money.
- charcircuit 1mo agoAI inference for people's queries is not free.
- lern_too_spel 1mo agoFirefox with uBlock Origin has blocked YouTube ads just fine on Android for years, and Google kept paying. uBlock Origin doesn't actually get installed by default on Firefox Mobile, but I'd wager that it effectively does.
- account42 28d agoThat's even more reason for them to add it. The google payment has been a giant conflict of interest.
- LeoPanthera 1mo ago
- garrettjoecox 1mo agoAny reason to use this over uBlock Origin Lite?
- temp0826 1mo agoJust mentioned in another comment, but I'm not sure Firefox on iOS can actually use webkit content blockers? (I thought it could but have been using Orion exclusively for a while now)
- Shank 1mo agoNo, uBOL blocks more ads and isn’t affected by Firefox’s insistence to not block Google Ads or their own. > Sponsored shortcuts and other sponsored content shown by Firefox when you open a new tab are separate from ads on the web pages you visit, so Ad Blocker doesn’t affect them.
- inigyou 29d agoAny reason to use uBO Lite over uBO?
- RankingMember 29d agoNope- the only reason uBlock Origin Lite exists is because iOS's browser limitations make full uBlock inoperable there.
- basedpolymer 1mo agoUBlock Origin Lite on Safari iOS is still king I guess
- busymom0 1mo agoThanks to your comment, I just installed it and set it up. Thanks!
- rrgok 1mo agoDoes it do cosmetic block of just DNS block?
- basedpolymer 1mo agoThe same as on macOS. Comzmeti. And dns block
- wredcoll 1mo agoIs there an android equivalent?
- MYEUHD 1mo agouBlock origin on Fennec F-Droid
- grahamburger 1mo agouBlock Origin has been fully supported on Firefox for Android for a long time.
- z0mghii 1mo agoAlso supported on edge
- peri-cl 1mo ago> "ads shown in search results will still appear" Is that for a technical reason or a commercial one?
- yapyap 1mo agocommercial
- Barbing 1mo agoBetter title suggestions? Introducing Ad Blocker for Firefox on iOS [Non-GA] ?
- lotsofpulp 1mo agoHow is this different than Firefox Focus content blocker on iOS, which came out many years ago?
- crsv 1mo agoThis is my question as well.
- unl0ckd 28d agoThis is different because Firefox Focus, a separate app, only blocks ads while using Firefox Focus. Firefox Focus can also be set as a Safari Content Blocker which allows Safari to benefit from Firefox Focus's ad blocking. (It's not the best ad blocker, I've found wBlock - https://github.com/0xCUB3/wBlock https://github.com/0xCUB3/wBlock - is more effective, anecdotally and via adblock.turtlecute.org) Regular Firefox (non-Focus, the app from the article) can not benefit from Safari Content Blockers, and therefore does not benefit from Firefox Focus's ad blocking.
- HexDecOctBin 1mo agoIt’s not clear from the post, are they supporting the Content Blocker API? In other words, can I use Adguard with Firefox now on iOS?
- GeekyBear 1mo agoThis is the sort of user focused feature you add when you take the phrase "user agent" seriously.
- finchisko 1mo agoWhy they don't use their rendering engine on ios at least in eu?
- OptionOfT 1mo agohttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/block-ads-firefox-ios#w_does-ad-blocking-affect-search-engine-ads:~:text=list%2E-,Does,blocked%2E https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/block-ads-firefox-ios#w... > Does ad blocking affect search engine ads? > No. Ads shown on search engine results pages are not blocked. A lot of the search results on top of Google are there to scam you, providing phone numbers for pass through services that charge $ for it, like flight cancellation: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1p6h81i/beware_fake_airline_support_numbers_on_google/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1p6h81i/beware_fake_... So this omission should absolutely be addressed, but they probably cannot because of the Google Search contract...
- dest 1mo agoIf only we could pay for Firefox so they could get rid of that Google funding…
- metalliqaz 1mo agohas any browser ever made that work? Opera has to be the most popular by a mile and even they couldn't keep that business model going
- dest 1mo agoNot in my knowledge. It would be hard to have the same amount of funding as they have now from Google.
- lexicality 1mo agoespecially when you pay your executives 7 figure salaries
- brewdad 29d agoThat’s what a good executive costs these days. You could try to hire a CEO for $100,000/yr with the expected quality of applicants.
- 55555 1mo agoIs there an ad blocker for Chrome on iOS?
- delis-thumbs-7e 1mo agoFinally. I turned it on immediatedly. Doesn’t seem to block youtube-ads, so unfortunately I can’t uninstall Brave just yet.
- delis-thumbs-7e 1mo agoI tested and adblockers work on Safari for youtube ads again? Hmm, should I just give in and start using Safari again. Maybe this time it won’t dissappiunt me… Maybe it’s different this time…
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- gilrain 1mo agoOr search engine ads, natch. My eyes rolled out of my head.
- eikenberry 1mo agoIt doesn't block the inline ads between story and comments on reddit.. my benchmark for browser ad blocking and ublock-origin is one of the few (only?) that does it. This is why I use the Orion browser on iOS.
- 9999gold 1mo agoIt's a shame that the adblocker is limited, though. I've been using Orion as a replacement for Firefox on iOS, which has support for extensions (including uBlock Origin) and better UI/UX in my opinion, but it is not open source.
- sapphicsnail 1mo agoWould someone smarter than me mind explaining why FF on iOS can't use extensions? I know every browser has to use WebKit but I've heard Orion is able to use FF and Chrome extensions.
- ethansinjin 29d agoApple doesn’t allow other apps to use Safari extensions (edit: on iOS or iPadOS) Orion offers custom support for WebExtensions but it’s basically requiring them to manually check and port WebExtensions to work well with WebKit, one by one. Check out: https://help.kagi.com/orion/browser-extensions/macos-extensi https://help.kagi.com/orion/browser-extensions/macos-extensi... https://help.kagi.com/orion/browser-extensions/ios-ipados-ex https://help.kagi.com/orion/browser-extensions/ios-ipados-ex...
- mococa 1mo agoWipr2 ftw
- nntwozz 1mo agoI was using ublock origin lite but now I've converted to wblock. Absolutely amazing, works inside webviews (e.g. netnewswire). v3 just released. https://github.com/0xCUB3/wBlock https://github.com/0xCUB3/wBlock
- what 1mo agoWhy would you use Firefox on iOS when it’s just a wrapper around WebKit? I don’t really get it?
- z0mghii 1mo agoCross platform sync?
- sfink 29d agoSync, mainly. You can send a tab to/from your Firefox desktop instance. Also synced passwords. Those aren't the only reasons -- Firefox on iOS has a lot of code in that wrapper -- but sync is the main one for me. (There are also reasons why it's significantly worse than Safari, which has special privileges, so your question is valid.)
- bozhark 1mo agoI know this isn’t feature request yet maybe somewhere knows more about this than I. Can we get tab management on iOS too please?
- stan-ely 1mo agoIs it already available in android? Without plugin?
- c0_0p_ 1mo agoAs others have mentioned it doesn't stop YouTube ads or search ads. Most likely because Mozilla is still quite dependent on Google for it's income. Which is why I think we need to be less critical everytime Mozilla tries to make money some other way. They need to become more self sufficient in order to improve Firefox.
- Anoian 29d agoI feel like they only exist so that google can claim that competition exists.
- worldsavior 29d agoThat's correct. Soon there will be Ladybird, hopefully in a few years a very good competitor to Chrome/Firefox. The thing I'm worried about with Ladybird is it's core logic is being coded by AI. I don't mind AI in other regions of code but I think core logic should be carefully written. They're also not very organized. Deciding to rewrite the whole codebase from CPP to Swift, then the decision changes to Rust shows uncareful decision making.
- ramijames 29d agoIt's weird because it does on Android. I use Firefox on Android to watch YouTube videos without ads.
- account42 28d agoWe need to be more critical every time Mozilla treats FF as a product to monetize. They should seek funding in the same way that every other charity does.
- onesandofgrain 1mo agothis is not genuine
- DavideNL 1mo agoAren't they like 10+ years late with this? So after all this time, Mozilla comes with a minimal ad-blocker that hardly blocks anything (easylist only, and worse [1] ), compared to all other ad-blockers that have been available on iOS for many years. I don't understand, maybe i'm missing something... [1] "Ad Blocker won’t block every ad. Ads served directly by the site you’re visiting and ads shown in search results will still appear."
- mvdtnz 1mo ago[flagged]
- socalgal2 1mo agoI once met a person that claimed they worked on iOS Chrome (the Safari wrap version) and when I asked them why the ad blockers didn't work they claimed they were unaware that the Safari iOS ad blockers didn't work in WebViews. I found that really hard to believe they didn't know.
- alentred 29d agoI am using DNS filtering on mobile, and noticed a new trend on some websites that detect an ad blocker: they force a browser native alert message which effectively blocks the page, followed by a page reload when the alert is dismissed. Wonder if there is a solution for that.
- martheen 29d agoFirefox with uBO on Android can handle that easily, no idea if iOS limit that
- therealmarv 29d agoThis should be standard on ALL Firefox on all systems. Why is not that? Ads are a kind of security threat for a long time. Brave is doing it, Firefox can do it too. And maybe I can recommend that kind of browser to the average Joe again.
- michael_luog 29d ago[dead]