Want to take advantage of iOS's support for content blockers? Here's how to do so.
The Web has gotten messy. Whether it's ads, social widgets, or spoilers you want to avoid, you can make it a little less distracting by downloading and enabling content blocker widgets. Here's how to do so on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Where can I block ads?
Only in Safari (or an app using the Safari View Controller). You'll also need a device with a 64-bit processor to deal with the background work. That list currently includes:
- iPhone 7
- iPhone 7 Plus
- iPhone 6s
- iPhone 6s Plus
- iPhone 6
- iPhone 6 Plus
- iPhone 5s
- iPad Air 2
- iPad Air
- iPad mini 2
- iPad mini 3
- iPod touch 6
As Rene notes in his Content Blocking explainer:
While older chipsets could run content blockers, they won't run them fast enough for Apple, and content blockers are all about speed. So, that means content blockers won't work with iPhone 5c, iPhone 5, iPhone 4s, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad mini, iPod touch 5, or with apps that use the old UIWebView or WKWebView controllers.
How to block ads on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
- Download your Content Blocker of choice from the App Store. (We like Crystal.) You may not see the Content Blocker option in the Settings app without an applicable app installed.
- Open the Settings app.
- Go to Safari > Content Blockers.
- Enable the blockers of your choice.
And that's it! To disable a blocker, you can just return to this screen and turn off the switch next to it. (If you're running into trouble with these steps, try our troubleshooting article on the subject.)
Reader comments
How to block ads on your iPhone or iPad
Jus saw that Peace is being pulled from the App Store by Marco. Going to keep it on my phone and probably get Crystal as that will have updates going forward. Any issue though running both content blockers in tandem? Woudld they compensate for each other- Peace would block what Crystal misses or visa versa?
Thank you Serenity! I have purchased the book and will continue in the future to support iMore!
Oh my gosh this is awesome, (using Peace)! Now if I can get Tweetbot onboard with their built-in browser ... I get tired of ads, but that's not what make me pro active about this, it's the performance hit ... That's just not right, really. Safari is definitely faster not having to load every dang ad that tries to get included in a page load.
A word about Tweetbot: Peace definitely has an effect on the built-in browser and the few ads that do get blocked still boost performance noticeably. Thanks for following through on this iMore - and you can count on me buying your epublications.
I grabbed the Crystal app but for some reason cannot switch it "on" for the iPad Air. I can see the option but it is sort of grayed out. Loaded and switched "on" for iPhone 6 just fine. Any ideas?
Yes, I am having the same problem. Tried installing two different blockers and they both came up greyed out in Safari settings, and I can't turn them on. :-/
Just found the answer, you need to disable "General>Restrictions", and then they will no longer be greyed out and you can activate!
Finally, Yes! good bye ads. My Sprint service is so crappy and I"m so tired of a page taking forever while it loads all the ads. Decided to go with Blockr
Tried Crystal and Peace. Crystal blocked more ads (Peace missed a few) and Safari ran faster with Crystal on my iPhone 6 Plus.
Just downloaded Crystal for my iPhone 6 and thank god the ads are gone. Browsing is so much faster now.
Me too! Very big difference with web browsing - thanks for pointing the way! ;-)
No support for iPad 4. Why does an URL filter require a 64-bit processor? Are you telling me that the filter would be a greater resource drag than the tracking scripts and autoplaying video ads that are allowed through now? I call BS.
I'd have to say that it's pretty disappointing. As an owner of an iPad 3, it sure would be nice to not have to deal with all the crappy ads which make the thing ever-slower on the interwebs.
But then, Apple apparently doesn't think that model is even capable of gaussian blurs on Control Center.
Using Crystal on my iPad and it's working great.
Just a question since I always hear about Google getting all their money from ads, and that they sell my info - which they deny... Where are these ads? I don't see any ads on my phone. Ever. No pop-ups, nothing, ever. Is it because I buy all my apps? My nephew gets ads on his iPhone, but I don't have any.
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Same here. When I am surfing sites in Safari, I do not get any ads. The only time I get ads is in a few apps that I have, like a local news app that I use has ads.
This is about *Safari* Content Blockers. They block things in the browser the way GetAdBlock and Ghostery do on desktop Safari.
They prevent you from seeing, being slowed down by, and tracked by ads on websites. They have nothing to do with ads "on your phone," only on the innernets.
Good to know the feature will only appeared if you install relevant apps such as Crystal and Peace.
But I found a few features missing as well on my iPad Mini 2, not sure if it's only me:-
1) Notes: The special feature such as checklist etc does not appear, even after I've update when Notes is first launched. Attachment and sketch is available at the bottom of the screen though.
2) Battery: Low power mode not available
Please help, spending hours and yet to figure out!
I know Rene has mentioned many times on Mac Break Weekly, and your own iMore casts that he/you/team are not in control of ads/trackers on this site. But it's so refreashing to see you just do the reporting, as you do, above and beyond, every chance you get. This artical was a pleasent surprize. You and team do great work. Thank you.
So... no love for my iPad4. So many new features are missing from that.
I had bought the iPad Air2 last year. But the entire device vibrating in my hand like a tuning fork when playing any audio made me return it.
I'm preferring purify right now because you can whitelist sites (very easily.) You can whitelist sites you want to support like iMore if you choose.
Serenity, you should list the ones that do whitelisting.
Crystal:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1022177308?at=10l3Vy&ct=UUimUdUcU677649
What other content blockers have been released? I haven't been able to find any on the app store.
Purify is in there now -- $3.99
Yeah, it took them a while to show up. Thanks!
I am missing some features on my iPhone 6 that I am reading should be there. The Content Blocker toggle is not under my Safari settings. And also the battery widget in Notification Center isn't showing.....*****I downloaded the Crystal app and the content blocker toggle then showed up, if I had taken the time to read all the comments I would have seen that.*************
Battery widget only shows up when you have a BT device connected (like Apple Watch). I'm assuming that content blocker options will only show up when you get one installed.
Ok that's why it's not there! Thanks for the info!
No problem. Took me a few minutes to figure it out, too. Bloggers didn't do a very good job of covering that.
There's a reason why "Download your content blocker of choice" is step #1 in our how-to. :)
That would be a clever reply if any of them were available at the time this was posted (and my comment was posted). They JUST started showing up.
Also, I was referring to bloggers in general, not you. I haven't seen anyone anywhere mention that you had to download a content blocker before that option showed up and I've read every article on iOS 9 that I could find.
Installed Crystal. Makes Safari even quicker too!
Sent from the iMore App
ya its not there for me either says its not in the u.s store
It seems Peace is not available... at least, on the Canadian store. Since I keep seeing Crystal, I've decided to try it... So far, it works great!!! :)
Crystal is also really great! I think Peace may not have propagated everywhere quite yet.
Crystal is in the Canadian app store...search "content blockers"
It's there, Crystal is the only one I found in the store so far. The option appears in Safari settings after you download one of the content blocking apps
Thanks! I assumed from what I read elsewhere that the content blocking setting was there regardless of whether any content blockers were installed and would just say 'none' or something.
I found Crystal, installed it, and then the option appeared.
Thank you guys for having a clear perspective on this despite your business model. Ads delaying long enough for you to start to click a link before consuming your screen, or deciding that you didn't actually want to read an article, but instead should be moved over the the app store to download some crappy "game" have really ruined the mobile experience for both consumers and more responsible sites.
thanks
It appears that Apple has not made these content blockers available on the App Store yet.
Or... did they remove the feature at the last minute?
I noticed the app they recommend is not listed in the app store also.