Advertisements are everywhere, and while they support creators, they can quickly become a nuisance, ruining the user experience. If you are tired of intrusive pop-ups, lock screen clutter and notification spam, you aren't alone. Therefore, here's a guide on how to block ads on an Android phone to reclaim your screen real estate and peace of mind.
What Type of Ads Are You Seeing?
Not every ad is blocked the same way, so find out what you are dealing with first. Use the table below to jump to the right fix.
| Type of ad | Where you see it | Best fix |
|---|---|---|
| Banner and in-app ads | Inside apps and across websites | Private DNS |
| Pop-ups and redirects | Chrome and other browsers | Browser Site settings |
| Website notification spam | Notification shade, alerts from websites you have visited | Chrome notification permissions |
| Full-screen ads over your home screen | Home screen, even when the app is closed | Revoke "Display over other apps" |
| Promotional push notifications | Notification shade, from installed apps | Notification channels |
| Lock-screen ads | Lock screen | Turn off Glance or Lock Glimpse |
| YouTube ads | Before and during videos | See the YouTube section below |
1 Stop Ads on Android Phone Using Private DNS
Like the Phone app offers a native way of blocking spam calls on Android, the Settings app also provides a similar route to block ads across apps and browsers. This is done through a DNS server or Domain Name Service, which intercepts requests and filters out ad servers. NextDNS is a popular DNS filtering service with a free tier and ad, tracker and security filters. On that note, here is how to set it up:
- On your phone, head over to Settings > Network & internet and tap on Private DNS.
- Select Private DNS provider hostname and enter your own NextDNS hostname.
- To find your NextDNS hostname, visit my.nextdns.io (visit) and create or sign into a free account.
- Here, copy the Private DNS hostname shown in the Setup section. It follows the format your-config-id.dns.nextdns.io.
- Then tap on Save to submit the DNS configuration.
- Once applied, NextDNS will start filtering ad and tracker requests across your apps and browsers.
Once saved, the DNS will filter ad requests, leaving you with a cleaner interface. It's worth noting that this may result in blank white spaces on websites where ads used to be.
2 Block Ads from Android Phone Browsers
If you want to block pop-up ads and redirects while browsing the web, you need to change your browser settings. Here's how to block ads on Android phone, specifically within a browser like Google Chrome:
- Launch Chrome on your Android phone, tap on the 3-dots icon at the top right and select Settings.
- Now, swipe down to the Advanced section and go to Site settings > Pop-ups and redirects.
- Turn off the Pop-ups and redirects toggle to start blocking sites from showing pop-ups and redirects.
Note that this setting blocks many unwanted pop-ups and redirects, but it does not remove normal banner, display or in-page ads. For that, you need a DNS-level blocker or a dedicated ad-blocking browser.
If you want a more aggressive approach, consider switching to Brave for Android, one of the best browsers for blocking ads and trackers. If tracker protection is all you care about, Firefox for Android has it built in.
3 Stop Website Notification Ads in Chrome
Some websites ask for notification permission and then use it to push advertisements via notifications. If you keep seeing promotional alerts from websites you visited once, here is how to turn them off in Chrome.
- Open Chrome and open Settings from the top-right corner. Here, open Site settings.
- Next, open Notifications and choose Don't allow sites to send notifications.
This way, you can revoke all website notifications via Chrome in one go.
4 Stop Full-Screen Ads on Android
Some apps abuse the "Display over other apps" permission to push full-screen ads onto your home screen even when you aren't using them. If you're seeing random pop-ups, considering you're running a recent Android version, here's how to disable ads on Android phone by revoking this permission:
- Head over to Settings > Apps > Special app access on your Android phone.
- Tap on the Display over other apps option and select the app that's serving full-screen ads.
- Turn off the Allow display over other apps toggle to disable the permission.
5 Remove Ads from Android Phone Notification
Push notifications on Android tend to turn into spammy billboards. Android allows you to use Notification channels to silence promotions without missing important alerts. Here's how to use it:
- Long-press on an app and tap on the i icon.
- Then select Notifications from the App info screen.
- Here, turn off all the toggles, but the ones that you think are important and want to receive notifications from.
- The adverts are usually the result of the Promotional notifications option that's enabled by default. You can disable them by turning off this toggle.
6 Remove Ads from Android Phone by Removing Apps
If you're getting too many ads in push notifications or pop-up ads after installing an app, but can't quite point out which app it is, boot into Safe mode on Android. This will help you identify the app that's pushing ads. Then turn off Safe mode on Android and uninstall the app. Here's how to do it:
- Go to the apps list and spot the app you want to uninstall. Long-press on it and tap on App info.
- Now select Uninstall (marked by a trash icon) and tap on Ok when prompted. The app will be uninstalled.
- Alternatively, you can press and hold and drag and drop the app on the Uninstall option to uninstall it.
7 Remove Ads from Android Phone's Lock Screen
If you've been seeing lots of lock-screen ads on Android lately, it could be due to a feature called Glance, it could be due to a feature called Glance. It pushes advertisements and AI bloat onto the lock screen. You can turn off Lock Glimpse on Nothing and turn off Glance on Samsung. Here's how to do it on the rest of the devices:
- Head over to Settings > Lock screen and look for Glance or Lock Glimpse.
- On some phones, Glance can be found inside Display settings.
- Once found, disable the Display on lock screen toggle to stop seeing ads.
It's worth noting that the process may differ depending on the manufacturer and the lock screen ads service they are using. However, the option to disable them is commonly found in Display or Lock screen settings.
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Can You Block YouTube Ads on Android?
This is the one place where a Private DNS or ad-blocker DNS will not help you much. YouTube serves its ads from the same domains and servers as the actual videos, so a DNS-level blocker can't separate an advertisement from the content you want to watch. Blocking those domains also breaks the playback.
The only official way to watch YouTube without ads on Android is YouTube Premium, which also brings background play and downloads. Third-party modified YouTube clients do exist, but they violate YouTube's terms of service and can stop working without warning, so we would not recommend them.
And those are all the ways to block ads in Android. By far the easiest way to block ads is by using an ad-block DNS. However, if you want to go above and beyond just blocking general ads, using all the methods listed above will rid your Android phone of almost all types of ads.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can I block all ads on Android?
Not with one toggle, but you can combine a Private DNS, browser Site settings, notification controls and app permissions to block all kinds of ads on Android.
Does Private DNS block ads in Android apps?
Yes, a filtering DNS such as NextDNS or AdGuard DNS blocks many in-app ads and trackers.
Can I block YouTube ads using Private DNS?
No. YouTube serves ads from the same domains as its videos, so YouTube Premium is the only way to remove ads from YouTube videos.
How do I block pop-up ads on Android?
Open Chrome and head to Site settings > Pop-ups and redirects, then turn the toggle off. To block system-wide pop-up ads that still appear, set up a Private DNS. Lastly, uninstall apps that you are not familiar with.
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