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Samsung is now allowing users to install ad blockers on its phones

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 9:12PM EST
Samsung Internet Ad Blockers
Image: Zach Epstein, BGR

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Following in Apple’s footsteps once again, Samsung added support for content and ad blockers to its pre-installed browser over the weekend. As long as you use the Samsung Internet browser on your Galaxy phone, you will now be able to download extensions from the Google Play store that hide advertisements and speed up loading times.

READ MORE: Samsung Galaxy S7 will be unveiled on February 21 – here’s what we know so far

Considering the update to Samsung’s browser is less than 24 hours old, there aren’t too many ad blockers to be found at the moment, but Samsung did partner up with Adblock Fast to bring the popular open source iOS, Chrome and Opera ad blocker to Android at launch.

According to a blog post by the software creators, Adblock Fast is already used by over 200,000 users across all platforms, and benchmarks show that web pages on Android load 51% faster with the software installed. But if Adblock Fast isn’t your cup of tea, you can also download Crystal. The popular iOS ad blocker made its way to Android on Sunday as well.

Although ad blockers made a splash when they first hit iOS last year, the buzz died down within weeks. Save for early adopters, no one really seemed interested in blocking ads on their phones. It’s a nice option to have, but considering the fact that ad blocking will only be available on the Samsung Internet browser rather than Chrome on Android for the time being, it’s hard to imagine it picking up steam.

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.