Apple is planning to open up mobile Safari to “Content Blockers,” according to a new features discovered in the iOS 9 beta. The change could pave the way for ad blocking extensions, which prevent images, popups, and other content from loading as you browse the web.
“The new “Content Blocking” feature allows developers to pass a JSON file with a set of rules for images, popups, cookies, resources and other elements in Safari,” explains The Next Web, which was first to spot the Content Blockers section in Safari’s settings menu.
This is a first for Safari on iOS, and it paves the way for all kinds of neat extensions that could improve your browsing experience. Apple explains that content blockers “affect what content is loaded while using Safari,” and “cannot send any information about what is blocked back to the app.”
The means apps like Disconnect, which blocks tracking scripts and prevent websites from recording your visit, to be used on iOS for the first time. It could also pave the way for ad blockers, which prevent ads from loading on the websites you visit.
Is that a good thing? Well, maybe for the average user, for a period of time. But when you block ads on the web, you prevent content providers from earning any revenue from them. If we all did that, our favorite sites would have to find other sources of revenue, or stop supplying content altogether.
It’s easy to see why Apple built the Content Blockers feature, but we’re assuming it was mostly intended to stop tracking given Apple’s focus on privacy and security, rather than to block ads.
Content Blockers can also be found in Safari on OS X El Capitan, though the desktop version of Safari has supported extensions that block ads and tracking scripts for years.
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
9 responses to “Apple paves the way for ad blockers in Safari for iOS 9”
Don’t the devs have to pay Apple $99/per year? Some might not want to do that.
Probably not for this, since they’re not really apps, just simple extensions.
The guy who created the Reddit Enhancement Suite is saying Apple is requiring a dev account.
Guy’s i would appreciate to have AdBlock on my iPhone … And maybe someone is providing an perfect working cookie management … to block all these tracking sh*t.
Please make it happen … !!!
If you’re still at 8.1.2 or any iOS below, you can jailbreak your iDevice and have •complete• control over cookies, and have a choice of many programs to stop ads. Adblocker is one, but there are others.
“Apple paves the way for ad blockers in Safari for iOS 9”
Glad I’m jailbroken. Been running Adblocker and others for years, and I’m not bothered by any ads, either on Safari or the other iOS browsers. Nor am I bugged any more by the annoying “Rate Me” messages that pester iDevice users, even after you’ve paid for an app. If you’re on 8.1.2 or below (including certain versions of iOS 6 or iOS 7), jailbreak your iPhone, iPad or iPod, and you’ll be very happy you did.
Finally a clean Cult of Mac experience. The site is so packed with distraction.
I’m using OpenDNS to block a lot of crap from websites. This works for any device on my wifi connection.
Except Cult of Mac wouldn’t exist if everyone blocked ads on it.
Ad blocking is the best thing that has happened for web browsers… I am blocking 14 sites right now… I don’t need ads popping up for crap that I do not need or want.