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Microsoft's Edge Browser for iOS Gaining Built-In Adblock Plus Functionality

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Microsoft is testing built-in Adblock Plus integration in its mobile Edge browser available for both iOS and Android devices, reports The Verge.

With built-in Adblock Plus functionality, Edge browser users on iOS will not need to download a separate ad blocking app, which may attract more users to Microsoft's browser. Adblock Plus can be enabled in Microsoft Edge's settings, with no add-on app required.

microsoft-edge-ios-800x457.jpg

Google has built ad blocking into Chrome for Android devices, but it is somewhat limited and not available on iOS devices. As noted by The Verge, Adblock Plus is a more aggressive ad blocking option.

iOS Safari users can, of course, install one of several ad block apps available in the iOS App Store, but there is no native ad blocking functionality in Safari.

Adblock Plus is available in a beta capacity on both Android and iOS devices at the current time, with Microsoft planning to roll the feature out to all Edge for iOS and Android users in the near future.

Microsoft has made its Edge browser available across a range of devices, including iPhones, iPads, and Android devices in addition to Windows computers. The Edge browser includes syncing of favorites, passwords, and reading lists, along with a "Continue on PC" option for transferring what you're reading from the mobile Edge browser to the desktop.

Article Link: Microsoft's Edge Browser for iOS Gaining Built-In Adblock Plus Functionality
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/06/25/microsoft-edge-ios-built-in-adblock-plus/
It’ll be interesting to see how it will be handled in terms of defaults. Though Microsoft doesn’t have the best history when it comes to that.
 
MacRumors said:
iOS Safari users can, of course, install one of several ad block apps available in the iOS App Store, but there is no native ad blocking functionality in Safari.
Click to expand...

I guess it depends on your definition of native. WebKit content blocking exists, and it is indeed built right into Safari – the third-party app is just needed to load filter lists into the content blocker.
 
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Brad9893 said:
I guess it depends on your definition of native. WebKit content blocking exists, and it is indeed built right into Safari – the third-party app is just needed to load filter lists into the content blocker.
Click to expand...

I think the fact that it requires a 3rd party app required to load the filter lists means that it's not native. Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera each have the ability to block ads as well, but it's not considered 'native' if it involves a 3rd party app. Chrome started by adding a native 'Google' ad block to it's browser, and Edge is following suite by addigng a 'Microsoft' ad block. Safari doesn't offer that option, although it can be supported by 3rd parties.

Make sense?
 
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I don’t use this sync feature with desktop because it seems that I require to convert my login to a Microsoft account on windows first. Can someone confirm if this is really needed ?
 
Didn’t know they had “ad blocking” apps for safari on iOS. Has anyone noticed any performance/speed drops when using any of these apps?
 
MacRumors said:



Microsoft is testing built-in Adblock Plus integration in its mobile Edge browser available for both iOS and Android devices, reports The Verge.

With built-in Adblock Plus functionality, Edge browser users on iOS will not need to download a separate ad blocking app, which may attract more users to Microsoft's browser. Adblock Plus can be enabled in Microsoft Edge's settings, with no add-on app required.

microsoft-edge-ios-800x457.jpg

Google has built ad blocking into Chrome for Android devices, but it is somewhat limited and not available on iOS devices. As noted by The Verge, Adblock Plus is a more aggressive ad blocking option.

iOS Safari users can, of course, install one of several ad block apps available in the iOS App Store, but there is no native ad blocking functionality in Safari.

Adblock Plus is available in a beta capacity on both Android and iOS devices at the current time, with Microsoft planning to roll the feature out to all Edge for iOS and Android users in the near future.

Microsoft has made its Edge browser available across a range of devices, including iPhones, iPads, and Android devices in addition to Windows computers. The Edge browser includes syncing of favorites, passwords, and reading lists, along with a "Continue on PC" option for transferring what you're reading from the mobile Edge browser to the desktop.

Article Link: Microsoft's Edge Browser for iOS Gaining Built-In Adblock Plus Functionality
Click to expand...
Does it use the same content blocker Safari uses? It’s been my experience mobile browsers with “ad blockers” don’t really block a lot of adds. But the right iOS content blockers are great.
 
pweicks said:
Didn’t know they had “ad blocking” apps for safari on iOS. Has anyone noticed any performance/speed drops when using any of these apps?
Click to expand...
No, it makes things much faster and you’re not using data to download ads. I’ve tried a number of different ones and settled on AdBlock (VPN type) as the one that works best for me. I’ve tried 1Blocker, Crystal, and a few others long forgotten. Each do a decent job but few actually update their lists.
 
It'll probably force you to have the default "allow unintrusive ads" option enabled, which basically allows all ads, like how Google only blocks a few ads in Chrome. I don't think a big corp like Microsoft is going to straight up block YouTube ads.
 
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Mikey44 said:
I think the fact that it requires a 3rd party app required to load the filter lists means that it's not native. Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera each have the ability to block ads as well, but it's not considered 'native' if it involves a 3rd party app. Chrome started by adding a native 'Google' ad block to it's browser, and Edge is following suite by addigng a 'Microsoft' ad block. Safari doesn't offer that option, although it can be supported by 3rd parties.

Make sense?
Click to expand...

Yes, it does, but at the same time, ad blockers for Edge, Firefox, and Chrome (if you want "real" ad blocking) all necessitate the usage of an extension like uBlock Origin that was built using extension API's. Apple actually makes the ad blocker for you. So, I guess you could consider it "more native" in certain ways?

Opera's ad blocking is 100% native, though. They built the blocker, pre-load filter lists (EasyList, EasyPrivacy, Anti-Blocker Blockers, and NoCoin), and even give you the option of importing your own – it's just turned off by default.

I am definitely being pedantic. :)
 
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nwcs said:
No, it makes things much faster and you’re not using data to download ads. I’ve tried a number of different ones and settled on AdBlock (VPN type) as the one that works best for me. I’ve tried 1Blocker, Crystal, and a few others long forgotten. Each do a decent job but few actually update their lists.
Click to expand...
How does an ad blocking VPN work? You aren't installing a new root CA for HTTPS (or at least I hope you're not), so it'll only work with the increasingly small number of plain HTTP sites.
 
fairuz said:
How does an ad blocking VPN work? You aren't installing a new root CA for HTTPS (or at least I hope you're not), so it'll only work with the increasingly small number of plain HTTP sites.
Click to expand...
Ultimately it’s a VPN that establishes a DNS list for the sites you don’t want. That’s how they describe it. I haven’t gotten down to nitty gritty. Seems to work much better than other alternatives I’ve tried.
 
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pweicks said:
Didn’t know they had “ad blocking” apps for safari on iOS. Has anyone noticed any performance/speed drops when using any of these apps?
Click to expand...

Like the other person said, it makes your browsing SO MUCH FASTER. It's kinda ridiculous, actually.

Eminemdrdre00 said:
Since iOS 9! No issues with speed. In fact, it'll make Safari feel faster. 1Blocker is my favorite. I definitely recommend it.
Click to expand...

1Blocker is great. 1Blocker X is even greater. Have you tried it yet? It's a newer version that takes advantage of the ability to have more content blocker units loaded, which I think might have been added in a newer version of iOS at some point. Basically it was limited to like 50,000 rules, but the newer version is rewritten and can use like a million or something ridiculous. However I've noticed that it can sometimes be a bit aggressive with things like Google News that requires a separate tap to open links and it sometimes doesn't open them but reloads the news module. I need to remember to file a report about that. I tried to find a workaround by toggling off the rule that affects it, but there are so many now it's difficult to track down.
 
nwcs said:
Ultimately it’s a VPN that establishes a DNS list for the sites you don’t want. That’s how they describe it. I haven’t gotten down to nitty gritty. Seems to work much better than other alternatives I’ve tried.
Click to expand...
I see, so they're probably just giving 127.0.0.1 for things like ad.doubleclick.net that host ads or tracking scripts, not actually altering the HTML served to you. That sounds good.

I've been doing that manually for a few offenders in my hosts file on my Mac: `127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net` appended to `/etc/hosts`. Not that I recommend doing this, but I personally do it half for the satisfaction of it.
 
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Does anyone have this installed on iPad? I don't see the adblock option. It's there on my iPhone.
 
pweicks said:
Didn’t know they had “ad blocking” apps for safari on iOS. Has anyone noticed any performance/speed drops when using any of these apps?
Click to expand...

Quite the contrary.

The ammount of CPU time used is vastly compensated by the the saved in processing all that tracker and advertising junk, you save loading times and battery.
 
You know, it'd be cool to take this - and a great many other browsers - out for a spin, but first Apple needs to allow us to change our default browser in IOS. I've looked but can't find a way to do so. Click any link at all and up comes Safari.

I'm not complaining too loudly, as I don't mind Safari. But if other browsers are going to get any traction at all, this functionality needs to be in place. Microsoft was forced to do so at one point in time. Wonder if the EU will complain to its courts about Apple about this.
 
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Microsoft simply doesn’t care about ad revenue. Google will eventually be forced to at least match them but they won’t be happy. It’s a shame that web adversiting has been abused by shady people including malware and all sorts of ads that completely obstruct what you’re trying to read making an adblocker a necessity. I never minded reasonable non-intrusive ads and whitelist sites that do adds responsibly. Content is not free and if everyone blocks everything, that will be the end of the open web as we know it. Every year more and more sites are going behind some sort of paywall.
 
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