Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Adblock Browser 1.0 for Android and iOS released · 2015-09-08 11:15 by Felix Dahlke
Install Adblock Browser for Android or iOS
As previously announced, we’ve been working hard on Adblock Browser for Android and iOS over the past few months. I’m happy to announce that today is the day where we release it on both platforms.
Adblock Browser for Android was in an open beta for a while now, and thanks to the amazing feedback we received there, we were able to evolve it into something we’re proud to release.
On iOS, we took a different route: We went with a closed, invite-only beta and usability testing. We’re definitely happy with what we’ve built here, but still quite eager to get more user feedback now. So please try it, and tell us what you think!
1.0 is, of course, just the beginning. There’s a long list of things the community wants to see happen, and the list is most definitely not going to get any shorter.
Comment [16]
Commenting is closed for this article.
Sven · 2015-09-08 11:37 · #
Just installed it on my iPhone 6 Plus (8.4.1) and I’m impressed how fast browsing can be, great job! Love the settings, too.
First thing I’ve noticed is, that there is no shortcut for “.de” when entering the URLs. Also, it would be nice, I you could restore closed tabs. It happens a lot, that I swipe and delete my tab by mistake.
Overall you did a great job, going to leave a great first review in the German app store. Please add the swipe back gesture in a future update. =)
Reply from Felix Dahlke:
Noted – thanks for the feedback!
bill · 2015-09-08 16:25 · #
Can’t find it on the UK app store? :/
Reply from Felix Dahlke:
Could you try again? Rollouts on Google Play can take a while to reach all countries/users.
Michael · 2015-09-08 17:31 · #
Could you plan AdBlock Plus for the Windows 10 Phone OS when Firefox will offer it on Windows 10 Phone simply because Firefox created a universal application that allows them to create Firefox for the Windows 10 OS as well as Firefox for the Windows 10 Phone OS.
Thanks, I can’t use a browser without this amazing addon.
Reply from Felix Dahlke:
We haven’t even looked into Windows Phone yet, since we want to cover the largest platforms first, but eventually we want to be on as many mobile platforms as possible, just like ABP works on as many desktop browsers as possible. If Firefox (or another high quality open source browser) has something for Windows Phone, that’ll surely accelerate our efforts.
osslove · 2015-09-08 19:12 · #
can we haz sources? :)
more seriously, I believe we can trust as you have always been good players in the OSS community, but I think it’s better for everyone when the sources are under the scrutiny of thousands of pairs of expert eyes.
for the android app at least, I understand open source licenses aren’t compatible with the deployment on the Apple app store.
Reply from Felix Dahlke:
Well, Adblock Browser for Android is open source, but it isn’t on hg.adblockplus.org yet, it’s on BitBucket (https://bitbucket.org/adblockplus/adblockbrowser) until our infrastructure can deal with such a massive repository.
iOS should be fine as far as the App Store is concerned, from what I can tell. But Adblock Browser for iOS is currently based on a code base we licensed, that isn’t open source. Please see my response to mapx on that subject.
mapx · 2015-09-08 19:33 · #
adblock browser for iOS is based on kitt browser
https://adblockplus.org/blog/first-official-ad-blocker-for-ios-launches-today-ditto-for-android
http://www.kitt.com/
which probably is not open-source
Reply from Felix Dahlke:
Yes, it is not, at this point. I can just say that I am personally very unhappy with this situation, and that we are planning to make Adblock Browser for iOS open source as soon as possible. It’s pretty much the only piece of code we have that’s not open source :( This was, however, the only route we saw towards having something ready within a few months: iOS is a new world for us, and it's hard to build a decent browser with ad blocking on there.
G · 2015-09-08 19:49 · #
Now please release one for Jolla/SailfishOS – not keen on using the Android emulation layer, and no Google Play store there.
Reply from Felix Dahlke:
We’ve got a very small team at this point, so we’ll have to pick our battles when it comes to bringing Adblock Browser to more platforms. We haven’t really looked into which we want to support next, yet. I’m personally happy we somehow managed to cover Android and iOS for now :)
Chase · 2015-09-08 21:54 · #
The browser is great on iOS but 1password integration is needed so I can use my password database.
Reply from Felix Dahlke:
Noted, add-on support is something we’re planning, but can’t pull off right now due to a lack of resources.
John · 2015-09-09 08:31 · #
Works great on my phone, but won’t start on my asus fhd 10inch atom tablet. Please fix! A MUST!! Damn animated publicity eats 1/4 of my transfer quota on phone!! So glad they went away :-)
Reply from Felix Dahlke:
I presume that’s an x86 device? We’re working on adding support for that – mostly a build/infrastructure issue though, Firefox already supports that.
eddy · 2015-09-09 11:27 · #
Ummm … just looking at some of the permissions I have to grant on the google play store eg :
“ Camera
Uses the device’s camera(s)
Microphone
Uses the device’s microphone(s)
download files without notification “
I wonder why it needs those?
Reply from Felix Dahlke:
They are needed for things websites might use – we still have to request them all upfront, unfortunately.
Adblock Browser is based on Firefox, they’ve got a pretty good FAQ on this: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-firefox-android-use-permissions-it-requests
Mike B · 2015-09-09 21:52 · #
I cannot find this browser on the Google Play store. I have a HTC One M8
norway man · 2015-09-10 02:35 · #
please enable option of selecting desktopmode useragent permanently, so i dont have to select it on every new page. thank you. ths browser is very fast. i love it
Chris · 2015-09-13 03:25 · #
Hi this is a great tool which was really missing, thanks for releasing it to us on iOS.
With iOS9 around the corner now, do you also plan a safari extension so that add blocking can happen directly with the native browser?
Thanks for the hard work!
Reply from Ben Williams:
We do! Adblock Plus for iOS will block ads in Safari. Hang tight, it’s coming soon!
Gail · 2015-09-24 17:46 · #
Installed this morning, no problems with any of the sites I visit. Thank you!
I do have a feature request – please create a way to organize bookmarks, i.e. sorting (at least) and user folder creation.
With bookmark organization in place this would be the perfect browser.
Brad · 2015-09-26 13:14 · #
It’s a shame this couldn’t have been a webkit/blink/Android webview based browser – Firefox’s performance is dismal with or without ad blocking. Also, websites, especially mobile ones, just don’t target its renderer anymore.
Mubin Lakadia · 2015-09-28 13:59 · #
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mathew p · 2015-10-14 18:36 · #
Hi, no doubt this is a fine application. But unfortunately I couldn’t delete the sites I had visited. Please advise.
Reply from Felix Dahlke:
It’s not possible yet, but we’re working on it, see: https://issues.adblockplus.org/ticket/3147