Reduce Phone Ads Without an Ad Blocker App

Installing an ad blocker extension in a browser is common knowledge. But most people don’t know that the ads squeezed into a game or news app on their phone can be blocked with the same logic. The secret isn’t in the browser — it’s hidden in the DNS setting that determines how the phone connects to the internet.

DNS is a kind of directory your phone asks “where is this address” when it wants to connect to a site or server. When you use an ad-blocking DNS, your phone never connects to known ad and tracking servers in the first place, so those ads fail to load. This works not just in the browser, but in most apps too.

How to Set It Up on Android

Open the Settings app.
Go to the “Connections” or “Network & Internet” section.
Find the “Private DNS” option (on some devices this may be under the “Advanced” menu).
Select the “Private DNS provider hostname” option.
Type dns.adguard.com into the box and save.

After this setting, the phone starts connecting through this DNS on both Wi-Fi and mobile data, and most ads get blocked before they can load.

How to Set It Up on iPhone

On iOS, this setting isn’t a single step like on Android, but it can be set up in a few minutes through AdGuard’s or NextDNS’s own app.

Download the AdGuard app from the App Store.
Open the app and go to the “Privacy Protection” or “DNS Protection” section.
Enable the recommended DNS server.
The phone will ask you to install a configuration profile. Approve this profile through Settings.

Once approved, the iPhone starts routing DNS traffic through this protection.

Know What This Method Does and Doesn’t Do

DNS-based blocking can’t always fully block certain types of ads, such as ads embedded within video (like ads on YouTube), because these sometimes come from the same server as the video itself. But banner ads in games, tracking code on news sites, and many in-app ad networks are significantly reduced with this method.

This method also doesn’t create any extra load on the battery or processor, unlike browser extensions, because it isn’t code running inside the browser — it works at the phone’s network connection layer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Basic use of AdGuard DNS is free, as is NextDNS use up to a certain monthly query limit.

Generally there’s no noticeable slowdown, and since ad content doesn’t load, some pages can even open faster.

No, under normal circumstances banking and other important apps continue to work without issues. In very rare cases, if an app unexpectedly runs into a connection problem, you can temporarily turn off the DNS setting.

Yes. By changing the DNS address from the router’s admin panel, you can provide the same protection to every device connected to that Wi-Fi network (including smart TVs). The menu steps may vary depending on the router model.