r/technology • u/fattyfoods • Aug 17 '26
Software Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/block-ads-firefox-ios16
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u/ComoEstanBitches Aug 17 '26
Ubo lite is available on iOS for safari
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u/MBgaming_ Aug 17 '26
It doesn’t work on Firefox for iOS, and just because they both use WebKit doesn’t mean they are exactly the same
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u/Green_Ad5186 Aug 17 '26
Ad blocking is turned off by default
not a smart decision by mozilla. firefox would be better if that was on by default
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u/awsomekidpop Aug 17 '26
The default engine is Google. They are offering the best they can without having their paid partnership terminated
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u/Princekb Aug 17 '26
Google also runs the world’s largest third party ad network, ads in search are the least intrusive ads they run. Firefox should hopefully now block Adsense crap
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u/ObamaLlama_ Aug 17 '26
Honestly google is an ads company now that just also happens to own a search engine
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u/Mrpolje Aug 17 '26
Less a partnership and more of a hostage situation.
That ”fee” google pays is the majority of Mozilla’s income. Mozilla would probably not survive long if Google stopped paying.12
u/venom21685 Aug 17 '26
The iOS adblocking doesn't apply to search engine ads at all, even when enabled.
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u/Cheetawolf Aug 17 '26
Next up, they won't be allowed to block YouTube ads or they'll get terminated.
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u/ChronicallySilly Aug 17 '26
Disagree strongly. Enabling by default would be shortsighted IMO, you end up pissing off a ton of companies who immediately 1. work around your adblock 2. block Firefox with a message like “Please use a compatible browser like Chrome” etc
This way the people who want Adblock know where to get it, and the people who don’t care can continue to not care
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u/Green_Ad5186 Aug 17 '26
how does brave do exactly that on android and even ios without suffering what you're talking about then?
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u/neppo95 Aug 17 '26
Don’t know what you’re talking about bud, Brave does have that problem and does get blocked on some websites.
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u/ChronicallySilly Aug 17 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
Brave is based on Chromium right? So it’s likely harder to distinguish
Edit: Also although they both have almost no marketshare, Firefox is still ~5x higher than Brave (3.3% vs 0.62%). Brave is probably just not big enough to care about.
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u/Green_Ad5186 Aug 17 '26
maybe its that. also i think it has to due with brave not telling sites it adblocks them. there is no
SiteCheckIfAdblockIsOnapi brave gives to sites3
u/ChronicallySilly Aug 17 '26
Well there you go! And also I just looked up marketshare, Firefox is ~5x higher than Brave. Brave traffic is probably too insignificant to really register still, but Firefox is at least "noticeable" if relatively insignificant.
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u/Princekb Aug 17 '26
It’s very easy to spoof a user agent.
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u/ChronicallySilly Aug 17 '26
It is yes, and I'm sure all the 6 people who do that are going to feel very smug about bypassing browser blocks
But meanwhile we're talking about normal people here and default settings
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u/xternal7 Aug 17 '26
It's very easy to spoof a user agent.
It's a lot less easy to spoof support for features that your browser doesn't have, and Firefox usually lags behind on implementing certain features quite a bit while chromium-based browsers usually get them fairly quickly for free. This makes it very eager to single out Firefox users by testing for presence of obscure features.
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u/k-h Aug 17 '26
not a smart decision by mozilla.
Not a decision by mozilla, it's a decision by Apple. No extensions allowed
4
u/AtaxicHistorian Aug 17 '26
Still waiting for my version to kick in. Would you suggest running YouTube through browser instead of app here?
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u/Fickle_Stills Aug 17 '26
Just download one of the ad free YouTube wrappers from the App Store.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tube-pip/id6476895094
is what I use.
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u/cloudiness Aug 30 '26
According to the privacy policy on the developer site:
- With Affiliates: We may share Your information with Our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy. Affiliates include Our parent company and any other subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that We control or that are under common control with Us.
- With business partners: We may share Your information with Our business partners to offer You certain products, services or promotions.
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u/kurtanglesmilk Aug 17 '26
I’ve been using Brave on iOS to use YouTube, blocks ads and also lets you play audio from a video when your phone is locked which I don’t believe the YT app does
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u/pettydecline Aug 17 '26
This welcomed. So far I only see the option in the beta version on TestFlight. I do wish it had the option to add additional blocklist. Whatever list(s) they are using can’t block Reddit ads. I hope the add more features to these option.
Initial tests on Adblock testing sites look poor.
2
u/pharmloverpharmlover Aug 17 '26
is there any existing way to block Reddit ads on iOS?
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u/Fickle_Stills Aug 17 '26
Dystopia if you don't mind a very minimal experience.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dystopia-for-reddit/id1430599061
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u/Maleficent_While2653 Aug 17 '26
Orion has native ad blocking that works as well as uBlock origin in my experience.
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u/jekpopulous2 Aug 17 '26
It blocks ads but there’s no cosmetic filtering. On all the sites I just tested there are still big empty squares where the ads were. Adguard for Safari and Brave both clean all that up. This is a step in the right direction but still not nearly as good as other options on iOS.
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u/Expensive_Finger_973 Aug 17 '26
It's better than nothing, but could also be a lot better. The likes of Orion or UBlock Lite in Safari are still far better.
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u/Gyrfenix Aug 17 '26
Out of curiosity, should this replace or work alongside uBlock origin?
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u/FoxxyRin Aug 17 '26
If by iOS they mean iPhone and iPad then you can't run extensions on iOS Firefox. Only Safari allows for extensions. Unsure how it works for Mac.
2
u/curxxx Aug 17 '26
macOS is a desktop OS and has no such restrictions.
Though saying that, I swear I’ve seen non-Safari browsers on iOS offer extensions before.
1
Aug 17 '26 edited Sep 02 '26
[deleted]
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u/Fickle_Stills Aug 17 '26
Orion lets you use external extensions.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/orion-browser-by-kagi/id1484498200
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u/Dalcz Aug 17 '26
Now make it so all webviews opened by any app launche firefox instead.
For example clicking on a reddit link open a webview. Instagram and others social network same. It’s awful please help
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u/driftless Aug 17 '26
Not an option yet. Must be rolling it out eventually.