Adguard for Windows, Android, iOS

[harlan4096]

AdGuard v4.3 for iOS: the new era in Safari ad blocking

In iOS 15 Apple has added the support for so-called Safari Web Extensions. This is truly a revolutionary change, no need to tone it down. Safari has become the first iOS browser to support browser extensions that we all know and love. Yes, the extensions in Safari are somewhat limited in their capabilities compared to their desktop counterparts, but it should not take away from Apple and the team that worked on this innovation.

What it means for you

Ok, but how will this change impact AdGuard ad blocker? After all, AdGuard uses Content Blocking API to block ads in Safari that — or rather, has been using it up until now. Web Extensions open the door to a completely new world filled with new opportunities.

The thing is, due to their "declarative" nature regular content blocking rules are quite narrow in terms of what you can achieve with them. The obvious example is blocking YouTube ads in Safari: it's a hard and non-trivial task, up to the point that we had had to add a special shortcut that needed to be prompted manually every time you opened YouTube.

Forget about that like it's never happened. We added a new module to AdGuard called "Advanced Protection", and it's called like that for a reason. It takes advantage of, well, advanced filtering rules (like CSS rules, selectors, and scriptlets) and therefore can deal even with the complex ads, like the aforementioned YouTube variety. And it will do so without any manual input. It just works!

This is one of the biggest level-ups in the history of AdGuard for iOS. Web extensions open so many new avenues, we actually felt like a kid in a candy shop.

Hopefully, you share our enthusiasm! So what are you waiting for? Go and show them ads who's boss! The update is already available in the app, or you can download AdGuard for iOS anew from the AppStore.