What is the state of rootless ad blockers for Android?
Several years ago, I used Blockada, which was frequently recommended. According to some discussion threads, it seems to have fallen from grace.
What ad blocker that doesn't require root do you use? What's your experience with it? Would you recommend it?
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I've been using AdGuard on my phone (OnePlus 6T) and tablet (Tab S7 FE) for quite some time now. Neither device is rooted. I got AdGuard lifetime license on sale from StackSocial a while back. The app isn't on the Play Store (if you look for it, you will instead find an extension for the Samsung browser or something). They have you download the .apk from their site, and then you can set up the blocking how you prefer. It works by setting up a local VPN. I think there's other ways to use it but I didn't feel the need to tweak further. Because it acts like a VPN, all app traffic flows through it so ads are blocked pretty much system-wide. Browsers, social media apps etc. Honestly I'd highly recommend it.
I use adguard as well. Zero complaints.
Have you noticed any battery drain from it? Blockada sometimes affected my battery life when in use, or even after I deactivated it.
Blokada likes to eat up battery because all filtering takes place on your device. The more lists you have the worse it gets. AdGuard uses their own servers to block stuff and only does some cosmetic filtering in their app. In my experience it almost didn't affect the battery at all.
Honestly not that much. It seems pretty lightweight. It has it's own measurement of battery usage (can't say how accurate it is but still better than nothing perhaps?) and on the tablet it has consumed around 9mAh, which I guess isn't too crazy.
I'm in the same position. Works well.