Adblock Plus, a forked version of Adblock, today released version 1.0 of its free native Android app. You can download the app now from the official Google Play store (Android 2.1+ required).
You can also download the .apk directly from AdBlockPlus.org and install it manually. If you do, however, you won’t get automatic updates, which are particularly important when it comes to blocking ads (as the sites that serve them are regularly changed).
Android users will of course be very pleased with the news, but third-party Android developers likely won’t. Ads are a big source of revenue for most app makers, and the biggest for many.
The announcement isn’t up yet on AdBlockPlus.org, but when it is we will update you with any additional information. In the meantime, the about page describes the new release as an app “that works in background and filters web traffic according to standard Adblock Plus rules.”
Despite this, you still have to run the app at least once to perform the first-time configuration setup. Either way, you’ll want to play around with the settings to make tailor the ad blocker to your needs.
The app has three major modes:
- If device is rooted then it will be able to filter common web traffic without any change to network settings. In this mode it can filter both mobile and Wi-Fi traffic.
- On non-rooted devices running Android 3.1 and higher Adblock Plus will also filter web traffic automatically, here it can only intercept Wi-Fi traffic however.
- For non-rooted devices running Android 3.0 and older Adblock Plus needs to be configured as a proxy server manually. Some devices do not support setting a proxy server, Adblock Plus for Android will not work on these devices.
Today’s release means Ad Block Plus is now available on Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Android. It is also coming to Internet Explorer and Safari.
See also – Adblock Plus for Chrome now unblocks certain ads by default; Here’s how to block them again and Ads no more: Adblock Plus for Opera 12.10 goes live
Image credit: asabird
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.