Advertising in apps and games is not a harmless "supplement" to free downloads. You don't need to put up with it, but rather make sure that it doesn't appear on your phone again. Let's see how to do this for the Android and iOS operating systems below.

How to remove ads on Android

It is the owners of Xiaomi and Samsung who most often encounter annoying pop-up ads. Android is an open source system, and it is easier to embed various advertising or malicious mechanisms in it. Banners interfere with the user's work, and sometimes cause real harm if they hide virus programs.

Pop-up ads on the lock screen and in the notification area

Usually with the browser and site address specified. The reason for such ads is that you subscribe to notifications from various sites when you click the "Allow" button in the browser. It's easy to get rid of it: go to your browser's notification settings. The list will include sites that can send you notifications, including those that show ads. Click on such a site and either click "Clear and Reset" (in Chrome) or" Block " (in Yandex Browser).

Ads on top of your home screen, apps, and lock screen

After downloading applications, you can pick up unwanted software: developers do not always fulfill their obligations in good faith. In this case, the ad appears on the smartphone's desktop. Actually, finding out which app is serving ads is difficult, but possible. In this case, use special programs (for example, Popup Ad Detector, Goclean, Uninstaller). They will help you scan your phone and show which installed apps can display ads. You can then opt out of using such an app by deleting it.

App Permissions, Android administrators

Programs such as launchers, security apps, dialers and caller ID, blockers, some cleaning and "battery saving" apps, camera apps, QR code scanning apps, and third-party keyboards may require unnecessary permissions and display ads. What to do? Take a look at the special permissions settings on your phone.

• Android 7: Settings-Apps-Menu button at the top right — Customize Apps-Overlay over other windows.*

• Android 9: Settings-Apps and Notifications-Advanced — Special Access — On top of other apps.*

• On Samsung Galaxy: Settings-Apps-Menu button at the top right

• Special access rights — always on top.* Device Administrators are apps with special access to Android that can do anything with your phone. You can find a list of such apps.

• On Android 7: Settings-Security-Administrators.*

• On Android 9: Settings-Apps and Notifications-Advanced — Special Access — Device Administrator Apps.*

• On Samsung Galaxy: Settings-Biometrics and Security — Other Security Settings — Device Administrators.*

Usually, the list should contain nothing but Google apps (Find Device, Google Pay, and the like), the phone manufacturer, and sometimes antivirus software. In all other cases, try disabling unnecessary administrators.

Ad blocking programs

If you want to completely remove ads on your phone, no matter where they appear, use special blocking programs. They remove ads in browsers, apps, games, and social networks.

The best program of its kind is AdBlock Plus. It's so effective that you won't find it in the Google Play store. You need to download it from third-party resources and manually install it on your smartphone (after all, Google's main source of income is advertising, and it is not advisable to place an application that will deprive the company of this income).

Please note that you can't install a third-party app by default, so you need to change this option in the settings: "Settings" > "Security" or "Applications" > "Unknown Sources". And put a check mark there. Sometimes this window appears automatically during the installation of such an application. Then you need to check the box in the pop-up window and wait for the installation to complete. To Other free programs: Adfree, AirPush, AdGuard, Xposed Framework (for YouTube), Doctor Web antivirus, Kaspersky Internet Security, McAffee Security, and others. In addition, if you use the Opera or Firefox browser, there are special built-in plugins that allow you to hide ads on Internet pages.

Factory reset

Under the guise of advertising, sometimes there are big threats to smartphone software that neither blockers nor antivirus programs can handle. Especially after installing illegally "cracked" games. Your smartphone may become unmanageable by downloading apps on its own, navigating to advertising sites, and so on.

In severe cases, we recommend resetting your settings to factory settings — This will delete all apps and data, including ads. Don't forget to back up your important files for recovery. Remove ads on iOS

Advertising in the browser

The native browser on the iPhone is Safari, so this is what we'll talk about (those who use other browsers can also find settings in them to disable ads on the phone).

The Safari app has a Read-only mode that opens the page without ads, navigation menus, or other distractions. Read-only mode formats the web page, leaving only the original text and images.

You can activate it by going to the page settings menu and scrolling down. To disable it, tap the settings button, and then "Hide" For reading"". If the "Show" button For reading"" is darkened, it means that the mode for this page is unavailable.

Note. To automatically use Read-Only mode on all supported web pages, open Settings > Safari > Read-Only Mode.

If you only want to block pop-ups, go to Settings > Safari, then enable the Pop-up Blocking option.

Remove annoying ads in games and apps

If you are using an app that doesn't need Internet access, disable it (turn off Wi-Fi or set "Airplane Mode"). However, this method is not ideal, since you will be offline all the time.

On the other hand, iOS allows you to control app access to cellular data. You can allow / deny certain apps access to cellular data so that you don't completely disable the Internet connection on your entire device. You can use this feature to block ads in games.

How to do this: Open the Settings app on your iPhone and select " Mobile/Cell phone number". Then scroll down to find the game where you want to block ads, and turn off the radio button next to it.

The second option to block ads is more acceptable. You need to download the so-called ad blockers. There are many such apps and you can find them in the App Store. Most of the solutions presented only block banners in Internet browsers, but there are some of them that can also handle ads in games and apps. Of the free ones, the most popular ones are Adblock Wi-Fi and iCareFone.

Don't forget that technically you can't block all ads. However, you can hide most of it, as well as block ads from tracking your movements on the network. The advantages of blocking ads, in addition to the fact that you won't see them, are increased page loading speed, reduced data transfer traffic, and significant battery savings.

ORIENT news
Photo: unsplash.com