#FireFox the Android

[the-sleepy-archivist]

Blocking Ads on Mobile Devices

Blocking ads on our phones is way harder than it should be so I figured I'd make some recommendations. These are not the only options out there, just the ones that I know and have used.

Please note that browser-level and system-level adblocking are complementary; you'll have the best experience if you use both of them together as they each block different things in different places. If you want a basic idea of how effective your combined adblocking setup is, you can visit this website in your mobile browser.

Lastly, there is some additional advice/info under the readmore if you're curious (EDIT: updated March 2025 to add more adblocking options for iOS and to add info about sideloading altered versions of social media apps that don't contain ads on Android and iOS).

Android

Browser-Level

uBlock Origin (for Firefox)

System-Level (works in all apps, not just browsers)

AdGuard

Blokada 5 (completely free version) OR Blokada 6 (has some newer features but they require a subscription)

iPhone/iPad

Browser-Level

AdGuard (Safari extension; free for basic browser-level blocking, requires a subscription or one time purchase of “lifetime” license for custom filters)

1Blocker (Safari extension from an indie developer; can enable one built-in or custom filter list for free, requires a subscription or one time purchase of “lifetime” license for enabling multiple filter lists and updating filter lists to the latest version automatically)

Wipr 2 (one time purchase from indie developer; simplest option to use, but also the least configurable. Best if you are looking for one time set and forget and don’t need any custom filters. Note that it does not have a system-level blocking option)

System-Level (works in all apps, not just browsers)

AdGuard (requires subscription or one time purchase of “lifetime” license for system-level blocking)

1Blocker (can activate without a subscription, but requires subscription or one time purchase of “lifetime” license to enable system-level blocking AND browser-level blocking simultaneously)

AdGuard DNS only (this is free and does not require the AdGuard app, BUT I would only recommend it for advanced users, as you can't easily turn it off like you can with the app. Credit to this Reddit thread for the DNS profile)

Some additional info: browser-level blocking is a browser addon or extension, like you might be used to from a desktop computer. This inspects the HTML code returned by websites and searches for patterns that identify the presence of an ad or other annoyance (popup videos, cookie agreements, etc.). System-level blocking is almost always DNS-based. Basically whenever an app asks your phone's OS to make a connection to a website that is known for serving ads, the system-level blocker replies "sorry, I don't know her 🤷‍♂️💅" and the ad doesn't get downloaded. This works in most places, not just a browser, but be warned that it might make your battery drain a little faster depending on the app/setup.

Each of those types of blocking has strengths and weaknesses. System-level DNS blocking blocks ads in all apps, but companies that own advertising networks AND the websites those ads are served on can combine their services into the same domain to render DNS blocking useless; you can’t block ads served by Facebook/Meta domains without also blocking all of Facebook and Instagram as well because they made sure their ads are served from the same domain as all the user posts you actually want to see. Similarly, browser-level blocking can recognize ads by appearance and content, regardless of what domain they’re served from, so it can block them on Instagram and Facebook. However, it needs to be able to inspect the content being loaded in order to look for ads, and there’s no way to do that in non-browser apps. That’s why using both together will get you the best results.

These limitations do mean that you can’t block ads in the Facebook or Instagram apps, unfortunately, only in the website versions of them visited in your browser. It also means ads served by meta’s/facebook’s ad network in other apps can’t be blocked either (unless you're one of the rare beasts who doesn't use facebook or instagram or threads, in which case feel free to blacklist all Meta/FB domains and watch your ads disappear 😍; I'm jealous and in awe of you lol).

One note: some apps may behave unpredictably when they can't download ads. For example, the Tumblr app has big black spaces where the ads are, and sometimes those spaces collapse as you scroll past them and it messes up scrolling for a few seconds (UPDATE: looks like the scrolling issue may have actually been a Tumblr bug that they have now fixed, at least on iOS). Still way less annoying than getting ads for Draco Malfoy seduction roleplay AI chatbots imo though. And honestly *most* apps handle this fairly gracefully, like a mobile game I play just throws error messages like "ad is not ready" and then continues like normal.

One final note: on Android, you may actually be able to find hacked versions of Meta’s apps that have the ad frameworks removed. In some cases they are a little janky (unsurprisingly, apps don’t always take kindly to having some of their innards ripped out by a third-party), and they are often out of date. BUT in return you get an Instagram app with no ads whatsoever, and some of them even add additional features like buttons for saving IG videos and photos to your phone. However, use these apps at your own risk, as there is functionally no way to validate the code that the third-parties have added or removed from the app. Example altered IG app (I have not vetted this altered app, it's just a popular option): link.

It is technically possible to install altered apps on iOS as well, but Apple makes it much, much harder to do (unless you are jailbroken, which is a whole different ballgame). I'm not going to cover sideloading or jailbreaking here because even I as a very techy person eventually grew tired of messing with it or having to pay for it. If you're interested you can read more about the different ways to do sideloading on iOS here.

[valoisfulcanellideux]

PSA: How to disable the new AI 'features' in Firefox (and also the new 'Gemini AI' on Android phones)

The Firefox browser has added new AI 'features' and you probably don't even know about them. This article tells you how to disable them:

https://www.askvg.com/how-to-disable-and-remove-all-ai-features-in-mozilla-firefox/

I found that the about:config method (the second option given in the article) was the fastest one, since I don't use the new sidebar and didn't want to have to enable and then disable it again.

While you're at it, if you're an Android phone user, you might find - like I did less than an hour ago - that Google Assistant has suddenly been replaced by Gemini AI. I was listening to a podcast, which suddenly stopped playing so that Gemini AI could interrupt it and pop up to tell me that yay! It was my new chat assistant!

Fuck's sake. 😡

You can disable it in your phone's settings under Google > All Services > Search, Assistant and Voice > Gemini. Select 'Google Assistant' instead of Gemini. You'll be asked to give a reason why you're switching from Gemini AI back to Google Assistant, so feel free to tell them. I sure as hell did.

Although, be aware that the linked article from Google does state that, "later this year, the classic Google Assistant will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices or available for new downloads on mobile app stores," so you'll probably be forced to accept it eventually unless you never upgrade your phone again.

[utopicwork]

Good news for ex users of Mull, someone started an active fork, it's called IronFox:

"IronFox is a fork of Divested Computing Group's Mull Browser, based on Mozilla Firefox. Our goal is to continue the legacy of Mull by providing a free and open source, privacy and security-oriented web browser for daily use."

[alexseanchai]

ugh okay fine I admit I have too many browser tabs open

so I could clear out Firefox on the misbehaving Android tablet by opening a new Firefox window on my laptop, sending each tab individually from tablet to laptop, closing each tab on the tablet as soon as it arrives on the laptop, and sending every tab in that window to OneTab

because OneTab doesn't work the same on Android as on Windows: it'll export every tab it knows about on both platforms, which on Windows is the lot of them, but which on Android is only the current tab and maybe the most recent tab or two

anyone know how to convert all my Firefox for Android tabs into a list of links similar to OneTab, in three orders of magnitude fewer clicks than the methods above?

[eleventhsister]

For Barriss Day 2024 (@barrissday) I have created a small Tamagotchi-like game!

Features:

Take care of Barriss's needs: Hunger, Fun, and Sleep

Two game speeds: Fast and Realistic

The game will run while you are away, so you can come back and take care of her throughout the day

Art created by @bluedeedeedoop

Works on desktop and mobile

Upcoming ideas:

Improved user interface

Minigames?

More sprites / expanded art

Add ability to sleep while you are away

Important note: The game stores the status values in your browser. If you clear website data, the game will be reset.

If you spot any bugs or have any suggestions, comment here or send me a DM!

[tetranymous]

Does anyone know of a way to force a memory limit on Firefox for Android?

All of the methods I've seen are only for desktop (mobile doesn't have about:config) or people saying that you should leave the memory management to the OS (clearly not helpful) or people complaining about slowness or storage space or browser crashes (irrelevant, clogging up search results) or confusing ram with internal storage (who even decided to call internal storage memory in the first place??? As if RAM didn't already mean random access MEMORY).

I'm getting sick of Firefox suddenly using up all of the RAM and causing my entire phone to hard crash and reboot 😭 (not just a tab or browser crash).

My phone's fairly old (I've gotta upgrade soon due to the 3g shutoff and lack of VOLTE support) but that's still a while away and it's only Firefox that's causing this to happen, everything else runs fine (plus I'd still like to use this thing even when I upgrade!). Can't mess about in root until I upgrade because this era of phone punishes you if you do (and I don't want to break something in there and be out of a phone for several months! Again!)

[carlyraejepsans]

you have an automatic block list? Is that an extension or an ao3 skin?

extension! ao3 enhancements. i use the orion browser on ipad which allows them, even where firefox ios doesn't.

[oddp1ant]

I just fumbled my way into making &udm=14 my default search engine on mobile (Android) Firefox and am very excited about this development!

Last I'd seen from the &udm=14 team was the browser extension available on desktop Firefox, but not on mobile yet. I'm definitely not the first to do this but I hadn't heard about it before stumbling on it myself, so I thought it couldn't hurt to spread the word.

If you don't know, &udm=14 removes the AI bullshit from google search*, and you can normally access it through the website https://udm14.com/.

How I made it my mobile search engine was to go to settings -> search -> default search engine, then choose "add search engine". Then it looks like this:

The search string URL I put in is https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=%s which I got by doing a search through the &udm=14 website, copying the URL of the result page, then replacing my search query (the bit after the last =) with %s as instructed. Then clicked save, set it as my default, tested it, and it works babey!

*It is still google, with some of the issues that entails and possibly the same privacy concerns - I haven't found any mention that &udm=14 changes that, so I'm going to assume it doesn't. Maybe you can guard yourself with other anti-tracking measures, or use an explicitly privacy-focused search engine if that's your priority.

[phoebastria-albatrus]

the funniest thing is that you can justv. Trick a laptop web browser to thinking its on a phone

[taniushka12]

the way finding a good pdf reader can rock your world

[softgrungeprophet]

hell yeah... now between my phone and ipad, i've got both tumblr and rco ad-free... living in luxury....

[kaiserkisser]

crash course in firefox for android pretty please?

[the-autism-album]

I DIDNT REALIZE THA ONLINE ICON HAD ITZ OWN CLASSSSS ,,,,,,,,

[istherewifiinhell]

my blog title is useful so i dont ever have to angry post about it any time i go to angry post about i can see my blog title and its like. oh right. everyone knows.

but maybe what you dont know is this

imagetotext.info

enjoy

[ranidspace]

Firefox Android update!

over 450+ new extensions were added to Firefox mobile!

Here are some that you may want:

XKit Rewritten (doesn't work for the tumblr app, just the mobile website)

Tamper/Grease/Violent Monkey (userscripts might not work)

Sponsorblock (again, just the mobile website for youtube, not the youtube app, though there are apps that incorporate it)

Stylus (userstyles might not work, and ublock can do css changes as well)

SteamDB

Indie wiki buddy

Homestuck companion (please read it using the unofficial collection, but yeah, it doesnt have a mobile app)

Translate Web Pages (may be obsolete soon as firefox is adding one, but currently doesn't detect most languages)

Ruffle (flash emulator, i dont know how well this works)

-And some addons that were also available before this update you should get:

ublock origin (no privacy badger or other adblockers or local cdn or whatever privacy addons are on the top. they're all null because firefox does that shit automatically. in other times ublock can do it as well, theres settings go look through those and enable more filter lists, this goes for desktop too)

Video background play fix (what it says on the tin, fixes videos not playing if you turn off your phone or move to a different app. this wasnt an issue for me, so whatever)

Google search fixer (lies to google and says you're browsing on chrome so they fix all the dumbass issues they added to the site to get you to switch)

In conclusion:

Use Firefox! (for android)

[solidwater05]

I WAS going to draw but I looked for refs and found AI slop so I spent a while trying to find any android friendly way to block sites from showing up in image searches. I found none. and now I have no time to draw anything and I still don't have refs