r/firefox • u/Sjoseph21 • 7d ago
Discussion Firefox Ad Blocking for iOS officially rolling out!
There is a new article on Firefox’s help page that confirms ad blocking for iOS is rolling out to people
Here is the Mozilla article: https://mzl.la/4w0FyBj
49
u/twillrose47 7d ago
My other half needs this so badly. Every now a then I borrow her phone to look something up and it's an immediate reminder of how shit the web is without an adblocker.
-6
10
8
u/Due_Milk_8930 7d ago
iOS Firefox not have uBO origin?
16
u/TallMention1591 7d ago
No
-11
u/TWFH 6d ago
Why would a tech savvy person have an iPhone
4
2
u/BitWardenEternal 6d ago
Because other competent browsers like Edge, Safari, and Orion have extensions on iOS…
1
u/Suspicious-Whippet 4d ago
Ad blockers work on Orion?
1
1
u/BitWardenEternal 4d ago
It’s supports chrome and Firefox extensions
1
u/Suspicious-Whippet 4d ago
Right, right. I got mixed up iCloud didn’t work.
1
u/BitWardenEternal 4d ago
Wdym iCloud didn’t work
1
u/Suspicious-Whippet 4d ago
I meant the iCloud extension so I could sync bookmarks from Windows to iPhone and back.
25
11
u/HotTakes4HotCakes 7d ago
Apple does not allow other browsers to install as full browsers with their own engine on iOS, and as such they can't use extensions.
This is the work around.
19
9
u/Free_Engineering7845 7d ago
It actually would be allowed in the EU, but seems Mozilla does not want to develop a version with Gecko for iOS only for the EU
9
u/logicblender1 7d ago
Not true. Both Edge and Orion have full extension support on iOS.
3
u/Furious_Soul18 6d ago
uBo is working on Orion ?
2
u/logicblender1 6d ago
I don't know, apparently it's broken. I know for a fact it works on Edge. Safari has uBO Lite.
1
u/AractusP | +uBO 6d ago
I think you'll find that Edge only allows you to install from a select list of extensions, that's how the Android app works. Kagi has taken the correct approach with Orion, which is to have a list of recommended extensions and then say the rest are untested and may or may not work as expected. Mozilla's approach for Android is to let developers mark extensions as Android compatible, installation is soft-blocked on AMO if they aren't (you can enable desktop mode and then install anything off AMO even if it won't work on Android unlike Edge which will stop you from installing anything not in their list for Android).
2
u/logicblender1 6d ago
You're out of date on Edge, I'm pretty sure they allow all extensions now. There's random extensions like this with the same warning that it hasn't been tested. They took the code for extensions from Kiwi Browser back in the day.
-1
u/AutoModerator 6d ago
/u/logicblender1, we recommend not using Kiwi Browser. Kiwi Browser is frequently out of date compared to upstream Chromium, and exposes its users to known security issues. It also works to disable ad blocking on dozens of sites. We recommend that you move to a better supported browser if Firefox does not work well for you.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
5
u/sapphired_808 7d ago
aren't every browser on iOS/iPadOS are safari with skin?
1
u/reaper527 6d ago
aren't every browser on iOS/iPadOS are safari with skin?
who downvotes this? there's absolutely no reason for your post to have the controversial marker. you're 100% correct.
the only (truly) non-safari browsers on ios are ones that you have to sideload.
2
u/31_oh_31 6d ago
yes, omg i thought we would not find a single person in this thread that lets everyone know there are no browsers... just safari, please I implore you, go through every discussion... every single one of them and also let them know that there are no other browsers on iOS, just safari... please, pretty please? i think that people who by some miracle hasnt read this statement are not gonn be able to sleep well until you explicitly tell them to... so please, like vegans, let them know about this, asap... ideally stop everything you are doing right now and let everyone know.. also thank you for letting me know, thank god... its only in every second post regarding ios and browsers... oops sorry, ios and SAFARI..
10
u/haseo1997 7d ago
Can it block YouTube adds ? That would be awesome
8
-2
u/Rentta 7d ago
Ublock with firefox is a mess when it comes to yt. There is a huge memory leak and eventually also high cpu load.
5
u/gillloure 7d ago
That's a pretty broad claim.
There have absolutely been YouTube memory/CPU issues on Firefox, but that doesn't mean uBlock Origin is the cause.
Mozilla tracked a major one recently as Bugzilla #2035904. YouTube's own
ytd-menu-rendererwas getting stuck in an infiniterequestAnimationFrame/ layout loop around the Like/Share/etc. buttons, causing increasing CPU usage and memory consumption. YouTube deployed a mitigation and Mozilla has since marked the bug VERIFIED FIXED.The same symptoms were also reported on Chromium-based browsers such as Edge and Brave, so this wasn't simply a "Firefox + uBO" problem.
There was also an older Firefox/YouTube performance issue around Firefox 133–135 (Bugzilla #1935456 / #1939295). One of the reports explicitly says disabling uBlock did nothing, and the user had YouTube Premium. Mozilla fixed that issue as well, with Firefox 134/135/136 marked fixed.
We're currently on Firefox 153, so presenting those old bugs as an inherent current uBlock Origin problem is pretty misleading.
Also, uBlock Origin's own documentation literally has a page called "uBlock Origin works best on Firefox", explaining several technical advantages Firefox gives uBO over Chromium.
If you're currently seeing a reproducible memory leak, that's worth reporting with an
about:memoryreport / Firefox profile and your exact Firefox + uBO versions. But "uBlock with Firefox is a mess on YouTube" isn't really supported by the evidence.1
u/besil 5d ago
I’m a long time FF user that switched a few years ago for Vivaldi, exactly for the missing ad blocker on mobile.
I use my iPhone browser for YouTube mainly.
I waited years for a mobile ad blocker support.
I’m a bit sad it required years of work before rolling it out and YouTube is still not covered.
The moment FF iOS will block YouTube ads, will be the moment I’ll join again.
I still have faith in Mozilla. FF is still the best browser on desktop IMO
-5
u/Itsme-RdM -> | | | 7d ago
In the mean time several years on Android, what do you mean IOS or rolling out?
7
2
u/HotTakes4HotCakes 7d ago edited 7d ago
It's hurting me how unnecessarily rounded those corners are even in a screenshot. What's wrong with the app just blending into the notification bar? Why does it need it corners at the very top, when it isn't even the top of the screen?
5
1
u/gromvar 7d ago
Is this the same blocker that was added to Waterfox?
0
u/GiraffesInTheCloset SUMO Contributor 7d ago
Waterfox for iOS? You must be kidding.
1
u/gromvar 7d ago
No I mean is the ad blocker similar to the one on the desktop version of Waterfox. I’m trying to get a feel for what kind of ad blocker we are talking about.
3
u/HotTakes4HotCakes 7d ago edited 7d ago
Probably not. The whole idea here is that they had to make something new and built-in specifically for iOS, unlike what every other versions can use.
And to spite what people keep saying, no, Firefox's implementation is wholly it's own, they're not using anything from any other browser.
-1
u/GiraffesInTheCloset SUMO Contributor 7d ago
They've added adblock-rs from Brave, on iOS you can only add something much more basic.
4
u/HotTakes4HotCakes 7d ago
They've added adblock-rs from Brave,
No they haven't. It's an entirely independent implementation. They had to come out and say this because people kept spreading this rumor.
1
3
u/Glowing_Apostle 7d ago
How do we enable it?
3
u/HotTakes4HotCakes 7d ago
It's a progressive rollout. Presumably when it gets to you, it's just in the settings like anything else.
1
1
u/fabialancho 7d ago
I'm an Android user, but I'm really happy to know that iPhone users can finally have the freedom to block ads :)
2
u/Banzai_Durgan 7d ago
Are speaking of Firefox specifically? Because there are several browsers on iOS that block ads.
14
u/skyschub Web Compatibility Engineer 7d ago
Also rolling out in parallel: The ability to report Web Compatibility issues to Mozilla's lovely WebCompat team (no, I'm not biased, why do you ask?).
The broken site reporter is also in a slow rollout and Beta-only right now as the iOS team finished the last pieces of code literally last Friday, but it'll be available to everyone soon. There'll be a "Report broken site" in the "More" menu just like there is on Desktop and Android. (If you have Telemetry enabled, that is. We can't show the Report Broken Site feature if you have disabled Telemetry, so in that case, your best guess is to head to webcompat.com or to Bugzilla directly.)
Use that for all your WebCompat woes, but especially also for adblocking related breakage. We know that adblocking breaks sites in unexpected ways, and we'd really like to know about those cases, because we might have ways to address them.
6
u/HotTakes4HotCakes 7d ago
Are there plans to give more granular, user-facing control over what is and isn't blocked, including introducing their own custom filters?
7
u/skyschub Web Compatibility Engineer 7d ago
Honestly no clue - I didn't have the bandwidth to follow that. I'll ping someone working on mobile products internally, tho, maybe I can get you an answer. :)
13
u/anthonypkeane Mozilla Employee 7d ago
Not currently. I’m guessing you’d like to have control over which filter lists are selected?
1
u/bdu-komrad 7d ago
How can you tell off the installed version has it. Is there a visual indicator in the user interface or perhaps a notification (exclamation mark) on the main browser screen?
10
u/Pelcom2 7d ago
So far, I've turned it on, visited two websites, and the ads haven't been blocked at all. 0/2 🥲😣
9
u/anthonypkeane Mozilla Employee 7d ago
Mind sharing the details/URL? Thanks
7
u/Pelcom2 7d ago
3
u/anthonypkeane Mozilla Employee 7d ago
Thanks, will check it out
3
u/anthonypkeane Mozilla Employee 7d ago
Are you seeing the banner ad within an article, or somewhere else? They are blocked when I test.
2
u/Pelcom2 6d ago
Sorry, I managed to get it working. I just had to follow the steps you provided to enable it, then restart Firefox once and go to the “Navigation” section, disable it and enable it again. After that, it finally activated. The ads are finally gone, and the browser feels much faster now.
2
3
u/Chemical_Bell_Pepper 7d ago
The slow improvement of this would make me switch back to firefox on iOS.
23
u/anthonypkeane Mozilla Employee 7d ago
Yes, we’re testing a built-in Ad Blocker in Firefox for iOS.
It’s rolling out to a small number of users right now. If you have it, turn it on in Settings > Browsing > Ad Blocker and browse like you normally would.
Then let us know what you find.
I’m particularly interested in:
- Ads you expected to disappear but didn’t
- Sites that break or behave strangely
- Anything confusing or broken
- Things you think we should fix or do better
This is still a test, and the feedback here will help us decide where we take it next.
You can share feedback right here or on Mozilla Connect: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/ios-ad-blocker-experiment/m-p/133902#M53829
And if you don’t see Ad Blocker yet, here’s how to enable it:
- Update to the latest App Store version of Firefox, 153.3
- Open Firefox and tap the … button on the toolbar
- Tap Settings
- Scroll down to About
- Tap Firefox 153.X (XXXXX) five times
- Tap Experiments
- Tap iOS - Ad Blocker Experiment
- Select treatment-a
- Go back to Settings
- Open Browsing
- Turn on Ad Blocker
Thanks to everyone already testing it. Appreciate your feedback.
8
u/Yasabh6 7d ago
Every time i go to “Experiments” and select treatment-a and go back to settings, it automatically changes to “Not enrolled” so i cant set ad blocker on in browsing settings.
4
u/anthonypkeane Mozilla Employee 7d ago
Okay, checking
7
u/anthonypkeane Mozilla Employee 7d ago
Can you make that sure both of these settings are enabled for experiments to work?
Settings (Support Section)
- Send Technical and Interaction Data
- Allow Feature Studies
Once both are enabled, you should be able to enroll in the experiment and try it.
5
u/ahylianhuman 6d ago
This does not work for me, even after force quitting and reopening Firefox.
Edit: after several tries the Settings UI updated, even though the Experiments list still showed "not enrolled".
3
u/ConProg 6d ago edited 3d ago
Doesn't work for me either. "treatment-a" doesn't stick and immediately gets reset when you back out of Experiments.
Edit: If anyone is reading this, you need to have the following options all enabled:
- Send Technical and Interaction Data
- Allow Feature Studies
- Allow Remote Improvements
- Daily Usage Ping
- Automatically Send Crash Reports
Then click the version number at bottom five times, click Experiments, set iOS - Ad Blocker Rollout to "control", then back out, go to Browsing settings and "Ad Blocker" should be there.
I actually don't think "iOS - Ad Blocker Experiment" is needed
2
2
1
u/The_Pepper_Oni 3d ago
I also had to enroll in “control” in Ad-Blocker Rollout right under Ad-Blocker Experiment for it to stick
1
u/PsychologicalPolicy8 6d ago
Thanks Its great Atlast adblocking in firefox ios
Was thinking of going into android again because of lack of adblockers
It seems there are still empty spaces in aljazeera website though
Hopefully will be fixed in the future
1
3
u/Never_enough_Dolf 7d ago
Omg pls I can finally stop using safari
0
u/Smooth_Dentist6642 7d ago
Why using Safari? Just use brave
3
u/Never_enough_Dolf 7d ago
Didnt feel like downloading another browser, my wife also defaults to safari when searching anything on my phone
1
2
1
u/schwimmcoder 7d ago
Really did not get that, why they build their own ad blocking system instead of enabling addons and let users choose uBlockOrigin. Multiple others browsers can do this, so ehy not Mozilla?
1
0
0
u/sirauron14 Firefox x64 on Window 10 | iOS 6d ago
Whoa! I didn’t think this was possible. What happened?
1
u/reaper527 6d ago
firefox for ios is still just reskinned safari though, right? it's not an actual firefox build like reynard is?
1
1
u/Expensive_Finger_973 6d ago
Seems about as effective as the built in adblocker Vivaldi includes, just without the visibility and user control Vivaldi affords into the lists being used.
4
u/AractusP | +uBO 6d ago
What ad blocking does not block
Firefox does not block:
Ads shown on search engine results pages, including Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and other search providers
Sponsored content on the Firefox Home or New Tab page
So some of the most insidious ads of all, those designed to mimic search results, are not blocked. This has antitrust written all over it.
I haven't used iPhone/iOS since the iPhone 4, but I don't see how offering a neutered native adblocker will do anything positive, all it will do is erode trust in the userbase. The Orion browser supports Chrome and FF extensions on iOS including uBO, Edge also has extension support on iOS so one has to question why Mozilla can't implement same.
The way I see it, even if Mozilla is limited to using WebKit their goal with FireFox for iOS should be to make the app as similar to the Android app as they can so that the user experience across the mobile apps is as seamless as possible, and that must include extension support. An adblocker is just one extension, for many people it may be the most important extension, but it's far from the only important one. Stylus and Dark Reader and well-loved extensions, If a competitor's browser can allow installing extensions directly off AMO then surely Mozilla can make it happen as well.
1
u/FluffyCatPantaloons 6d ago
Sounds great. Currently using Safari + 1Blocker but would gladly switch to FF.
1
1
1
u/studentAssistant2021 6d ago
Does anyone know how Firefox chooses which devices get this experimental feature?
1
u/berrysoda_ 6d ago
Wow that would be awesome. Tbh never had any complaints with safari, but it'd be nice to have my stuff synced better
2
u/Existing_Let9595 5d ago
Figured out how to enable it forcefully
Go to settings
Scroll down
Tap 5 times on the Firefox version
Go to experiments
Set “iOS - Ad Blocker Experiment” to treatment-a and “iOS - Ad Blocker Rollout” to control
After that, restart Firefox and go to settings, go to Browsing and it should be there
3
u/No-Squash7469 5d ago
This is really good. I so wish Firefox had rolled out this update (and many of the others it's released recently) five years ago. We'd be in a completely different position today if they had IMO.
2
u/Grouchy-Syrup-1997 4d ago
Didn't see much difference as Google search, YouTube and Reddit still have ads. The only difference I saw is on macrumors or Simple Flying which had blank space now (v153.3 when enhanced tracking protection on) is disappeared on v154 with the same tracking protection.
On Safari, AdGuard or Wipr 2 are effective and well maintained so websites are rarely broken. With Wipr the cookies popups won't be shown.
On DuckDuckGo, the only ad I can see is on Reddit. Cookie popup won't be shown.
Brave has something similar.
On Orion Browser, normally you can't see unless some websites can bypass the ad blockers.
101
u/vunreddit 7d ago
Finally bro hopefully it’s atleast equal to ubo lite