How to Hide Ads in Android Apps & Games?
Ads are a necessary evil. Many websites and applications are providing you with free service, free content and free software because someone else is paying them to keep them up. Thus, the service provider has to serve ads to you in return for the income that is keeping them in business, and in development. As the user, you reap the benefit of using the product for free.
However, sometimes the ad placements can be really annoying, contributing to not-so-appealing user experience. You can block ads from appearing in apps and games, or only on browsers.
The methods here may work for both rooted and non-rooted devices. It will be specified for each method. Before we begin, you need a File Manager, e.g. Astro File Manager. Any other file manager will work fine.
This method uses ad-blockers (apps) to block or hide all ads in your device, including the ads shown in various apps and games. There are many ad-blockers for Android, thanks to the ever-growing Android developers. The top two would be Adblock Plus (ABP) and AdAway; we will discuss the former, but you can install AdAway if that’s your preference.
Using Adblock Plus
We’re going with Adblock Plus, as it is an open source project and has the option to allow non-intrusive ads. This method works for both rooted and non-rooted devices. Installing an ad-blocker app requires your device to allow applications from unknown sources.
Sideloading is required as Google has removed ad-block apps from Google Play Store. You need to sideload any ad-blocker, i.e. Install ad-blockers using its APK file and not from Google Play Store.
Follow the given steps to set this configuration:
- Go to Settings –> Applications (or Security on 4.0 and above) on your Android device.
- Navigate to the Unknown source option.
- If unchecked, tap the checkbox, and then tap OK on the confirmation popup.
Your Android device is ready to install ad-blockers.
Installing And Configuring Adblock Plus
Open a browser in your device and download Adblock Plus for Android. Your device will receive the APK file: adblockplusandroid-version. apk.
Navigate to where your downloaded files are kept, then tap on the file and install. (If you open the APK file using a file manager, select Open App Manager and then click on Install.)
On rooted devices: after installing, open Adblock Plus. It will request for super user permissions. Allow super user permissions to Adblock Plus and you are good to go.
On non-rooted devices: you need a few more steps, to manually set up proxy in your Android. You will need to follow the instructions here as the instructions are different for Android versions up to 3.1 and 4.0+.
Now Adblock Plus will start blocking or hiding ads. You can set more options in Adblock Plus like ads filter lists, non-intrusive ads, etc. in Settings.
