Firefox ad-blocking in iOS Firefox

[Zimbo]

The main reason I still use Safari on iOS / iPadOS is that there are good ad-blocking options available to Safari but not to Firefox.

Firefox Focus seems to have a capable ad-blocker included, but this is not available for the standard Firefox app to use.

It would be great if Firefox included an option to use the Firefox Focus ad-blocker in its settings.

[Jon]

(Note: similar ideas have been merged into this thread)

[KMC]

Mozilla, are you listening at all? It's painfully obvious what needs to be done. As long as ad blocking isn't available in regular Firefox, your market share will continue to shrink. Implement it or lose people, it's that simple.

[pvfpinto]

A must have feature. I don’t understand why we don’t have this feature. 

[samuwell]

Love Firefox on Android and Desktop.  Shocked to find that Firefox is unusable on iPhone due to lacking adblock.  Looking forward to re-installing Firefox on iOS once this gets resolved.

[okay_okay]

This would be a great addition!

[ElectroDad]

Ad blocking is a make of break feature. Their is much garbage on the Internet to go without it. Normal websites can become almost unreadable on the small format mobile screen without ad blocking. 

[jowra]

As a longtime android user i've just switched to an iPhone and can't believe it that there is no ad-blocking in Firefox. At least, please just integrate the blocking of Firefox Focus.

[R0bot]

The Brave browser has done a fantastic job with their iOS browser. I'd like to see Firefox catch up to them. 🙂

[Gorman42]

As it often happens, proposals languish for years. It’s unacceptable that FF still doesn’t offer adblocking by default on iOS.

[Cobra]

How is it 2024 and Firefox is still the only browser on the App Store without any adblocker built-in?

If we are never going to get it, then can we at least get some options in Firefox Focus to stop it from automatically deleting our history, etc.

[Anonymous]

I am extremely disappointed with Firefox for iOS. The browser is bare-bones, does not block any ads whatsoever, and makes the browsing experience horrendous.

I do not understand why Mozilla bothers with this browser, taking into account that it is clearly not receiving any attention.

The most common trope on this theme is that Firefox for iOS is mediocre due to Apple restrictions, but this is an utter lie. You just have to look at what other companies offer to realise the WebKit excuse is not valid:

• Brave: Several features, including an ad blocker and background YouTube audio.
• Edge: Option to install Adblock Plus several more features.
• Vivaldi: Adblocker plus more.
• Arc Search: Adblocker on release day.
• Orion: More extreme case, can install extensions from the Firefox and Chrome stores.

[AshenPaladin]

Built in adblocker on Firefox for iOS

The fact that the adblocking capabilities of Firefox on iOS are close to non-existent is I believe one of the reasons for its very poor adoption on iPhones. There's likely quite a few users of Firefox on desktop who aren't able to use it on iOS because using the internet without a proper adblocker in this day and age is pretty impossible.
For the longest time, I believed that this was due to Apple's restrictions and the fact that Firefox on iOS had to use WebKit, but Brave on iOS has a "Built-in 3rd party Adblock", a "Pop-up blocker", "Script blocking" and "Blocks cookie consent notifications by default." as per their own App Store page, and that's while still using WebKit just like Firefox for iOS. And Brave on iOS has much better adblocking capabilities than Firefox on iOS. So in that case, it seems that it's not a technical issue as much as an issue of funding and focus. Firefox on iOS always seemed to be somewhat left behind, with just minor improvements and bug fixes.

In this case, I think that Mozilla could and should focus on improving the adblocking capabilities of Firefox on iOS - this should play well alongside its current marketing of it being a "private, safe browser", and it should help with marketing it as an alternative to Safari and Brave.

[Jon]

(Note: similar ideas have been merged into this thread)

[KMC]

There are 2.5 years of frustration expressed in this thread regarding the lack of ad-blocking in Firefox mobile. Why isn't Mozilla doing something about it?