Assuming you use a sane browser, you can simply install uBlock Origin and get started with blocking ads. Do read on for more tricks on how to use it effectively, though!
Protip One: uBlock Origin works best on
Firefox (and
it's derivatives). Consider leaving any Google Chromium-based browsers
(including Chrome, Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, Brave) as an imminent change to
the browser extensions mechanism (search for manifest v3)
will most likely force uBlock Origin to not be as effective as it is
right now.
This should make sense once you realize that the majority of Google's revenue comes from advertising.
Protip Two: Open the extension popup thingy, and press the "three cogs" icon to get into the settings page. In here:
Protip Three: While on the settings page, open the Filter lists tab. In here:
Protip Four: Do not install any other ad blockers into your browser. They will conflict, and you will be in a world of pain. Read more...
Protip Five: Check the r/uBlockOrigin wiki for anything extra you might want to block. You will need to paste the given snippets into the My filters tab of the settings page. Make sure they are needed before you use them.
That subreddit is also an excellent resource if you caught unblocked ads (and want to report them), or just want to know how to make annoying parts of your favorite sites disappear. (They don't have to just be ads!)
Install Firefox for Android . In it, open the Three dots, and press Add-ons. From there, install uBlock Origin and read through the On your computer section of this guide to harden it a bit more.
Install AdAway. It does not need root access, but it can use it if you have it available.
The defaults should work fine for most cases.
There are a plethora of unofficial Reddit clients available for you to choose from. Not only will they just work better than the official client, they all have better ad situations than the official one.
Some, like Infinity and Slide have no ads to begin with, while others, like Sync have an overall better "user experience", with the exception of ads which you can pay once to get rid of forever. (The last time I tried it, AdAway worked well with Sync for free. YMMV, though)
For getting rid of YouTube ads, you have two main choices. YouTube Vanced, and NewPipe.
If you do not comment, like, or do basically anything other than watching videos, NewPipe is a great alternative client. It does not have any account support, but it'll let you watch videos, and allows for downloading if you wish.
If you do interact with YouTube, or just want your subscriptions to work without any extra hassle, Vanced would be the way to go, though setting it up can be a bit more complicated, as it's a modded version of the official app, and thus, needs a bit of encouragment to work well.
Protip One: YouTube Vanced supports SponsorBlock, which gets rid of the in-video ads the creator puts in. (something something Raid)
Protip Two: NewPipe can also support SponsorBlock, though it's not in the main application. You can download a SponsorBlock-enabled version of NewPipe from here
I'm gonna be honest here. I have no idea how iOS does things. I know that content blockers exist, but I cannot recommend any of them as I personally don't have any experience with them.
Ideological Reasons: Brave's CEO is a homophobe (to the point on donating against a few California (?) laws supporting gay people. Brave also, through the BAT project, supports cryptocurrencies, this has all the downsides of cryptocurrencies, with the downsides of shoving ads to your face. But you'll at least "earn" some monopoly money, yay?
Technological Reasons: Brave's ad blocker just isn't as effective as uBlock Origin as of writing.
Both of them are (to the best of my knowledge) owned by the same company, eyeo, and both subscribe to the "acceptable ads" program, which lets advertisers bribe them (with money) for letting their ads through
uBlock only exists as an historical artifact. See the Wikipedia page for more info. It also, as far as I'm aware subscribes to the same "acceptable ads" bribe program as Adblock/ABP
Since ad blockers are so popular, people who have no idea what the hell they are doing will create ad blockers and shove them into extension stores in hopes of ??? maybe money??? no fucking idea
These ad blockers, because the people who made them have no idea what the hell they are doing, will most likely be very ineffective. Some of them might be based on uBlock or ABP code, but they will most likely be old versions, not updated since, and just overall not worth your time.
I should also put this here, but installing malicious browser extensions can be as bad as downloading random .exe files. If you install a malicious extension, it can have the permissions to snoop through all your login cookies and send them off to who knows where.
Ad blockers are especially attractive for malicious extension devs, since they usually need the "read and modify all pages" permissions to work properly.
Because of Google's terms and conditions, all ad blockers in Google Play Store are either completely fake and malicious, or gimped down to the point of useless-ness.
I should also point out that, in general, the Play Store just isn't as "trustworthy" as one might think, and there are well known cases of malware, and otherwise crappy apps, slipping by Google's automated systems.
I personally use F-Droid for my Android app needs, but I am aware that not everyone can find their selection sufficient, so just be careful around the Play Store. Read about the apps you're installing from outside the store. (reviews can be manipulated)
Share this page with your friends, family, total strangers even. They deserve to be freed from corporate propaganda, and being tracked, just as much as you.