Not to be left out of the great mobile ad blocking landslide, Samsung has tonight released an over the air update to its Web browser for Android 5.0 users that delivers adblocking for the first time.
Earlier this year, Apple quietly built an ad block API into iOS, bringing the ability to block advertising to mobile for the first time — which ultimately caused publishers to panic.
Samsung’s new API works in a very similar way to Apple’s: developers are able to build adblocking extensions for the Samsung Internet browser, which take care of the ads for the user.
The difference here is that Samsung’s version only works in the company’s internet browser, not Google Chrome or any alternative. That doesn’t really matter, however, given that most users opt for the default browser; the Google Play store estimates 50 million installations of Samsung Internet.
The 💜 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
Adblock Fast is the first extension to take advantage of the new API available for free from today — and it’s open source. The team found that it was able to make pages load an average of 51 percent faster with ads blocked on Android devices.
In the coming months Samsung also plans to push an update to Android 5.0 users, so they’re able to take advantage of the feature as well.
The question for those that make money advertising online will now be: will this be the adblocking apocalypse, or will it fizzle like it did on iOS?
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.