this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2024
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Privacy
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I use Blokada - but not the latest version since the company switched from the free open-source standalone app paradigm to a cloud-based continual paid subscription model. It seems like Blokada version 4 (obtained either from the company's webpage or F-droid I forget which) blocks a heck of a lot more stuff than version 5 for some reason.
On the other hand, it also noticeably heats up my phone if a not-well-behaved app (examples include Freemium games) continually resubmits queries over & over again every (or even multiple times a) second. You can block every request that it makes... but it can also keep making them so... at some point you may question whether the cost is worth it.
This arguably relates more to "tracking" than actual advertisements, since there can only be a finite number of the latter but the former can happen all day every day even when the app is not running, if it decides to be aggressive about checking in with its home base. These days, even if you do pay for something, your data is STILL the actual "product" that is the reason the company is in business at all to obtain.:-(
If you still want to use a VPN style adblocker, I moved from Blokada some time ago to Adaway. Works the same.
Thank you for helping fill out this list. May I ask why you moved away from Blokada? Version 5 is bad ofc, and 6 is far, FAR worse, but 4 worked well for me.
It looks like AdAway has some nice features since I saw it last, like the ability to whitelist a particular app. If it does not require root permissions, it might be a clear winner even.
blokada to netGuard and the reason is precision
https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard/releases or izzysoft or fDroid
it doesn't need root
I use Blockada 5 and haven't noticed any heating issues, it might be worth a go! I did have to enable most of the lists to get good coverage (and then a couple custom selected on/off over time) but I mostly don't think about it after a little setup. The only thing I do have to worry about is swapping which VPN is on when I want a real VPN- but fortunately the VPN I like (Mullvad) has adblock built in too.
Yeah I still use Blokada 5 on my daily driver - it generally works "well enough" for most things, so I never bothered to switch to 4 on it. But I did notice that if you try to play a game on it, it's like the ad blocker isn't even there, whereas version 4 worked a lot better straight away. I may just not have played around enough with the settings of 5 though:-).
I use 5 and I noticed it was hit or miss so I just said fuck it and enabled all of the available lists lol haven't seen an ad since