This is a question that for some is easy to answer and for others may not be as easy to answer. So all input could help other people find and make a more knowledgeable choice and one that helps them towards their privacy goals.
I tested this out on my partners phone
UBlock on iphone works well and is free but is limited to safari, does not appear to even work with safari used as an in-app browser (eg using a mobile lemmy app and clicking a link that opens but stays in the app, not switching to a safari and opening a new tab). In some cases it is more effective at blocking ads
AdGuard is more intrusive. Instead of just an extension for safari it also installs a vpn profile. The advantage is that this allows it to act as a dns filter for the phone. This means it works in all apps to some degree, though several work around it. Costs $5/yr
Depends on your use case I suppose
If you want DNS filters you can use Mullvad DNS which is free, privat, doesn’t require a app and can be used together with uBlock lite
UBlock on iphone works well and is free but is limited to safari, does not appear to even work with safari used as an in-app browser
This is the most annoying part about “content blockers” on iOS. Works fine in this one narrow context. Otherwise you need DNS filtering. I use PiHole, and I have it set up to VPN back home when I’m away to keep myself covered.
I use PiHole, and I have it set up to VPN back home when I’m away to keep myself covered.
I don’t remember posting this, but it sounds like me.
Why “lite”?
On Chrome, UBO relies heavily a particular feature that is no longer available in the latest version. Google didn’t manage to get rid of UBO completely, because UBO lite was developed in response.
Regardless, you can still run full UBO in a desktop Firefox. That didn’t change at all when Google started messing around with Manifest V3. Since UBOL exists now, the devs probably thought it might be light enough to run on iOS too.
Ok but this isn’t Chrome or Firefox, this is Safari. Hence the question.
It’s not named a certain way just based on the browser it’s on, it’s named to reflect the features it has. The “lite” version isn’t as flexible because it was built to work on browsers that restrict the features of the full version. Given how restrictive mobile browsers are generally, on iOS in particular, I’m surprised the developer even got the lite version working.
UBO lite has fewer features, and is therefore “lighter” than the normal UBO – hence the name.
Safari on iOS has always had some pretty strict limits on what extensions can do. For example, content blockers don’t get to run code on the pages you browse, it’s more like they give the browser a list of what type of thing to block when you install and configure it, then when you’re browsing, the extension isn’t even doing anything, it’s just the browser using the list. Obviously that’s more limiting, there might be ads that are best dealt with by running a bit of code, so it makes sense that they’d consider it “lite”. (The benefit of those limits is that ad blocking extensions can’t run amok and kill your phone’s battery since the browser’s handling it by itself.)
iOS 15 (2021) introduced support for actual extensions, not just blocklists. These extensions can inject scripts on the pages you browse and multiple adblockers on iOS make use of that, including Adguard, uBO Lite and Wipr for example.
They still use the blocklist API for their regular URL blocklists, but can run scripts in addition to that. Never saw a YouTube ad on iOS ever since, for example.
There are even userscripts extensions (think Greasemonkey compatible) available. It’s no problem.
I’m not the creator so I have no idea why they named it that
Thank you for sharing. Just added it to my browser.
Is anyone able to *configure* it? I was able to get it enabled in safari but otherwise I can’t seem to find any options or the ability to select blocklists or anything.
I believe this is an iOS limitation, as Gorhill discovered. Therefore, only the lite version is possible, and lacks custom blocklists.
In safari click on the extension and then click on “open the dashboard” it will list all the filter lists you can enable and disable
I use 1Blocker. Pretty good
I could be missing something, but I don’t see a way to add Bypass Paywalls Clean into UBL, so I’m using AdGuard for the custom filter.
I use 1Blocker, which seems to be pretty good at blocking annoyances. Would there be anything to gain from switching to uBlock?
It was making my phone super hot so i switched back to adguard
aren’t both bad? I don’t know adguard but already ublock origin didn’t have enough options to unbreak websites, it was either on or off, so lite… now I just use uMatrix and adjust the settings for each site.
What are you talking about? With uBlock Origin you can customize the block lists, change it per site, and easily select your own elements to block…
