Block ads on your phone

No app to install, no subscription. Works in every app and browser, on WiFi and mobile data. Takes about a minute.

Install on iPhone

Open this page in Safari on the iPhone itself. On Android, use this instead.

After you tap install

  1. Safari says the profile was downloaded — tap Close.
  2. Open Settings. Near the top you'll see Profile Downloaded. Tap it.
  3. Tap Install (top right), enter your passcode, tap Install again.
  4. Done. Ads start disappearing immediately.

To remove: Settings › General › VPN & Device Management › Ad Blocker › Remove.

On Android

Nothing to download — Android has this built in. Android 9 or newer.

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Go to Network & internet › Private DNS.
    Samsung phones: Connections › More connection settings › Private DNS. Or just search "Private DNS" in Settings.
  3. Choose Private DNS provider hostname.
  4. Type this exactly:
    dns.adguard-dns.com
  5. Tap Save. Done — ads start disappearing immediately.

To undo, set Private DNS back to Automatic. Everything below applies to Android too, except the iPhone-only bits.

What it blocks

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Ads on websitesSafari, Chrome, Firefox — every browser.
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Ads inside most appsGames, news apps, weather, free utilities — the banner and pop-up ads.
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Trackers and analyticsThe stuff following you between apps and sites.
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On mobile data tooNot just WiFi. Works everywhere the phone goes.

What it can't block

Being straight with you — three big ones are immune, and no iPhone ad blocker beats them:

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YouTube ads (in the app)Ads come down the same pipe as the video itself, so there's nothing to block separately. There is a free fix — see below.
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Instagram sponsored postsThey arrive in the same feed data as your friends' posts, indistinguishable. Nothing on iOS can remove them.
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Facebook sponsored postsSame reason. Only workaround is using facebook.com in a browser with a content blocker rather than the app.

Killing YouTube ads (free)

Ten minutes, no subscription, no sideloading. You end up with a YouTube icon on your home screen that opens ad-free and plays with the screen off.

  1. Install Brave from the App Store. It's free.
  2. Open Brave, go to youtube.com, and sign in — your subscriptions, history and playlists all come across.
  3. In Brave: Settings › Media → turn on Background Video Playback. Now audio keeps going when you lock the phone.
  4. Open the Shortcuts app → + → search Open URLs → paste this exactly:
    brave://open-url?url=https://m.youtube.com
  5. Name it YouTube, then tap the share icon → Add to Home Screen.
  6. Move the real YouTube app into a folder so you stop tapping it by mistake.

Why the Shortcut rather than just "Add to Home Screen"? Because iOS runs home-screen web apps in their own sandbox, where Brave's ad blocking can't reach — you'd get the ads back. The Shortcut forces it to open inside Brave properly.

Killing cookie pop-ups

The DNS profile already removes some of these by accident. This removes nearly all of them — and rather than just hiding the banner, it refuses consent on your behalf.

  1. In Brave: Settings › Shields → turn on Block cookie consent notices.
  2. Still in Brave, open Content filters (or type brave://settings/shields/filters) and switch on EasyList Cookie and Fanboy Annoyances.
  3. Under Add custom filter list, paste:
    https://adblock-73b.pages.dev/cookies.txt Catches the stragglers the big lists miss.

On a computer, use Firefox with uBlock Origin plus the Consent-O-Matic extension — built by researchers at Aarhus University, it actively clicks "reject all" rather than hiding the box. That distinction matters: a hidden banner records no choice at all, while a rejected one legally obliges the site to drop the tracking cookies.

If a page ever loads blank, a consent script it was waiting on has been blocked. Tap the Brave shield and turn it off for that site.

"Accept tracking, or pay"

Most UK and EU news sites now greet you with a wall demanding you accept tracking or take out a subscription. It looks like a paywall, but it's a consent box — and you can usually decline and still get in.

✓
Turn on Global Privacy ControlA signal telling every site not to sell or share your data — sent before any banner loads. Brave does it automatically. In Firefox: Settings › Privacy & Security › Tell websites not to sell or share my data.
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Install Consent-O-MaticA free extension from Aarhus University. It digs through "manage preferences" and clicks reject on your behalf — which is where sites hide the option, hoping you'll take the easy Accept button instead.
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Where rejecting means no entrySome sites genuinely lock you out unless you accept or subscribe. Nothing here changes that, and anything claiming to is just breaking into paid content.

Is it safe?

Yes. It changes one setting: which server your phone asks to look up website addresses. It sends that traffic to AdGuard's encrypted resolver, which refuses to answer for known ad and tracker domains. It can't read your messages, it isn't a VPN, it doesn't run in the background, and it costs nothing. Remove it any time in two taps.

Changed your mind?

Every part of this comes off in seconds, with nothing left behind. No reboot, no leftover software, no account to cancel.

1
iPhoneSettings › General › VPN & Device Management › Ad Blocker › Remove Profile.
2
AndroidSettings › Private DNS › set it back to Automatic.
3
MacSystem Settings › Privacy & Security › Profiles › select Ad Blocker › press the minus button.
4
BraveDelete the app. Your filter lists go with it.

The profile is a settings entry, not an app. Once removed, your device is exactly as it was before — there is nothing to uninstall and nothing left over.

What this can't reach

Worth being specific, since you're being asked to install something.

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Your messages, photos, files and contactsIt has no access to any of them, and can't request it.
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Your camera, microphone or locationNo permissions are requested or granted at any point.
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Anything inside the pages you visitIt installs no certificate, so encrypted traffic stays sealed. It cannot see what you read, type or buy.
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Your passwords or payment detailsNothing here touches accounts or logins.
→
What it does see: which sites you look upYour phone has to ask someone where "bbc.co.uk" lives — normally your mobile network. This sends that question to AdGuard's encrypted resolver instead, which refuses to answer for ad and tracking domains. They see the name of the site, never what you did there. It's a change in who holds that list, not an extra copy of it.