Advertising funds most free apps and sites, so blocking it entirely has consequences. Still, there is a difference between reasonable ads and intrusive full-screen ones that make an app unusable.
1. Use a browser with built-in blocking
The simplest and safest approach. Several mainstream mobile browsers include ad and tracker blocking as a built-in feature, needing no extra software or permissions. This handles web advertising, which is where most people meet the worst of it. It does not affect ads inside apps.
2. Turn off personalised advertising
This does not reduce the number of ads but limits tracking used to target them. Go to Settings, Privacy, Ads and delete your advertising ID or opt out of personalisation. Worth doing regardless.
3. Use a private DNS with filtering
Android supports Private DNS at the system level, which can block ad and tracker domains across the whole device, including inside apps. Find it under Settings, Network and internet, Private DNS, and enter a filtering DNS hostname from a provider you trust. It works system-wide, uses no battery and needs no app — but it blocks by domain, so it cannot block ads served from the same domain as the content, and your chosen provider can see your DNS queries.
4. Pay for the apps you use most
Not the answer people want, but often the best one. Many apps offer an inexpensive ad-free version, and for the two or three you use daily it is usually better value than fighting their ads.
What to avoid
- VPN-based ad blockers. A VPN sees everything your phone sends. Free ones need a business model, and for some that model is your data. If you use one, choose an established, transparent provider.
- Apps requesting Accessibility permission to block ads. Avoid entirely — that access lets an app see and control your screen, including banking apps. No ad blocker needs it.
- Modified "ad-free" versions of apps from outside the Play Store. These are frequently repackaged with malware and are a common way phones get compromised in India.
A reasonable middle position
Block intrusive and tracking-heavy advertising, turn off personalisation, and pay for or allow ads on the handful of things you genuinely value and want to keep existing. Small independent publishers are hit hardest by blanket blocking, since they lack other revenue.
