It seems that the formerly “do no evil” google have decided to remove all ad blocking apps from the Play Store. Fortunately it has always been possible to install apps directly from the APK files — as long as you can find them. The 3 most popular ad blocking apps are still available to download in apk format, all you need to do is enable the installing of apps from “unknown sources” somewhere in your phones settings.
As I mentioned above, before trying to install any of these apps you need to enable “unknown sources”. This setting will be found in the main settings, then either applications or security, then look for a setting that mentions unknown sources and enable it. You can then either download directly on your phone and install from the download menu, or you can download on your PC, copy the APKs to your phone (e.g. via USB) and use a file-manager app (e.g. ES File Explorer) to install them.
AdFree
My personal favourite ad blocking app has always been AdFree by BigTinCan. Finding the APK wasn’t very easy, but it turns out that it can be downloaded directly from BigTinCan.com.
AdBlock Plus
AdBlock Plus is also available directly from its home at AdBlockPlus.org but note that it only blocks ads when using WiFi.
AdAway
AdAway is available from the F‑Droid app repository.
If you’re unable to get the apk files from any of the original locations then please let us know by commenting below. You can visit our [intlink id=“741” type=“page”]downloads[/intlink] page for mirrors, but we can’t guarantee to keep the mirrored copies bang up-to-date though so please try the official sources first.
“Hi James I realise it has been a long while, but I just checked this on windows 11 (build 23H2)…”