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iOS 9 Content Blockers Mini-Reviews
- Thread starter Apple_Robert
- Start date
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If you look at the fourth picture in the app design portion of my review, you'll see that there is indeed a toggle for EU cookie warnings.
Some other blockers do have the feature as well, though I can't currently name any off the top of my head.
Adguard has the option to block EU cookie notices. This can be activated by enabling the filter called "Prebake" within the app.
Apple only provides a 64-bit framework for content blocking and thus it only works on 64-bit devices.
There you go. Thanks! It's too bad. I'd love this on my older devices.
"Focus by Firefox - content blocking & tracking protection for your mobile browser"
The site that I visit show up with a lot of ads and the ones that get blocked display as an empty white box.
Compared to other blockers (purify, adguard, magic) it's not even on the same level.
I think this is more centered towards blocking trackers than ads.
The site that I visit show up with a lot of ads and the ones that get blocked display as an empty white box.
Compared to other blockers (purify, adguard, magic) it's not even on the same level.
I think this is more centered towards blocking trackers than ads.
We must keep in mind that this is the initial release, I have no doubt that it will improve over time.. just like all of the others have done.
You are correct but again, I think Focus is not a real ad-blocker. At least not now. It mimics Disconnect which is more of a privacy/tracker blocker.
Focus might be a good option in combination with Purify or other ad-blockers.
Adguard - Adblock and Privacy Protection for the Web by Performix
App design - B
Adguard is pretty straight-forward in its set-up. You enable the app in Settings under Safari -> Content Blockers and you're good to go. Upon first opening the app, you are presented with a quick tutorial on how to enable the app and some basic configuration information.
The filters provided for the user are numerous and quite in-depth. While you may not know what they all are at a glance, all of the filters provide you with a short description on the same screen you would enable them on. There is a filter for useful ads, but not the same kind of acceptable ads practice as Eyeo, the developers of ABP. (You can click here for a little more insight into this.) And for those that are curious, it does contain a filter for EU cookie notices but under the curious label of "Prebake."
The developer has included a section for user filters, giving users the power to create their own blocking rules if so inclined. You have the ability to whitelist websites in the app, but there is also a Safari shortcut for whitelisting websites which is much more convenient. Generally speaking, you must manually update the filter list, but I have noticed that the app will check for updated filters if it is opened for the first time after being force closed.
You can locate the developer's website and forums in the 'About' section if you would like to learn more or need to contact the developer. However, the part I cannot wrap my head around is that the way to report issues is also located in this same section and not readily available on the main page. It is also the only way to report issues, as you cannot do it from the Safari shortcut, and it requires you to report issues via mail.app.
Blocking power - A
In my short time using Adguard, it has surprised me with how well it has worked. It is probably the only content blocker that has worked this well for me aside from Magic. Granted, it is not without its own warts, but the foundation is decent and I can only imagine that it will continue to improve going forward. Once again, the disclaimer of your mileage may vary applies here, as it always will.
NFL.com originally loaded as a blank white page but was fixed quite quickly after being reported and works fine now. Adguard works better with more sites than most of the other blockers I have tried. As a funny aside, no links on MacWorld worked when tapped on but I was able to circumvent this by using "Peek & Pop."
Update: MacWorld was broken due to the "Mobile ads" filter. With that turned off, the links worked as normal.
The following websites were tested using the English, Spyware, Social media, Mobile ads, Safari and EasyList China filters:
Time Magazine(^), CNN(*4), Yahoo (local), MacRumors, Amazon(^^), Fox News(*4), Huffington Post(*7), iMore, The Verge, The Wall Street Journal, MacWorld(*2), Apple, ImDB, Reddit, MLB.com, NBA.com, NFL.com, NHL.com, Giantbomb.com, Teamliquid.com, Anandtech, Ars Technica, iOSnoops.com, Mangastream.com, Mangareader.com, Techradar, GameSpot, IGN(*7)
Unless otherwise noted by the * symbol, all sites loaded correctly without any pop ups or blank advertising boxes.
^ Could not test if videos would load on Time.com since they are only available within the United States
^^ Some stuttering and lag was noted on certain searches
* Site did not load
*2 Site loaded correctly but clicking links on main page or subsequent page didn't work.
*3 Site loaded correctly but did not block all ad(s) on main page or subsequent site pages.
*4 Site did not correctly load all non ad page elements (e.g. pictures, video, text etc.)
*5 Site loaded correctly with no ads or pop ups. Empty advertisement blocks were noted.
*6 Site loaded correctly but did not stop pop up messages or redirects
*7 Site loaded correctly but did not block social media buttons
Speed - A
Adguard is one zippy app. Websites loaded quickly and I was rarely left waiting. There were a few instances in which websites took a little longer to fully load which could have been the result of my connection. However, I would often have to wait several seconds before a video would start playing on many websites, though overall I suppose it would be the exception rather than the norm.
It's faster than most of the competition and manages to retain functionality in many sites, which is often something that the fastest blockers are unable to do. In general, I have no complaints about the speed and it definitely felt faster than Magic, which is what I was using before.
Price and developer contact - A
Free, zero dollars, zip, nilch, nada. This app will cost you nothing more than a bit of your bandwidth to download. By the way, have I mentioned that Adguard is free? You can't beat that.
I have actually only contacted the developer once to report a broken website, but I received an email to inform me that they had received my report and were actively looking into it, which was a nice touch. The developer seems to be somewhat active on the forums and I'm guessing they have a Twitter account they can be reached at as well. Therefore, I suppose I should mark the "developer contact" portion of this with an asterisk as my interaction with them has been limited and I'm basing it on outside factors.
Overall rating - A
Adguard performs better than I expected; considering I have been trying out its sibling on my MacBook for a while now and it has worked well there, I should have expected it to work well, so why was I surprised? You'll have access to basic features like whitelisting and EU cookie notice filters, but their unconventional naming scheme for many filters means you may have to spend some time digging for what you want. Updating filters is as easy as the push of a button and even does so automatically on occasion, which I can't complain about.
I did find a couple things to complain about though. I hope that Adguard will add the ability to report issues from within the Safari shortcut. Currently, the only option available through the shortcut is to whitelist a site and it is quite inconvenient to have to leave Safari every time you want to report an issue.
And on that note, why do I have to drill down to a second layer in order to find the link to send a bug report? This likely would not have bugged me as much if I could report an issue through the shortcut, but you cannot do that! It really bugs me even until now and thankfully I've only ever had to report one site since if I had to do that a few more times, I might not have even bothered.
Allow me a slight tangent: as I've stated before, I don't expect blockers to work perfectly out of the box. I understand that this is a give and take scenario and I will need to put in some amount of effort to report issues when I come across them if I expect a blocker to improve. Not everyone will go to the same sites I do and using the same blocker I do, so I can't expect someone to do this for me; I am willing to do this. However, if you want users to put in the effort to do this, you have to make it easy/convenient for them! This is the complete opposite and if they want people to actually provide feedback, they really need to make some changes in this area.
Thank you for allowing me that rant. With all that I have said, I still think that Adguard does the job and does it very well. It's fast, works well and the developer is responsive/active. With some changes to how error reports are sent and maybe some additional regional features, of which there are already plenty, it has the potential to be the best blocker around. To anyone that asks, Adguard definitely receives my recommendation and I am giving it serious consideration to be my daily driver.
Updates made to the review on Dec 12, 2015. Added note regarding MacWorld functionality and amended part regarding useful ads, which has nothing to do with acceptable ads that you find in ABP.
App design - B
Adguard is pretty straight-forward in its set-up. You enable the app in Settings under Safari -> Content Blockers and you're good to go. Upon first opening the app, you are presented with a quick tutorial on how to enable the app and some basic configuration information.
The filters provided for the user are numerous and quite in-depth. While you may not know what they all are at a glance, all of the filters provide you with a short description on the same screen you would enable them on. There is a filter for useful ads, but not the same kind of acceptable ads practice as Eyeo, the developers of ABP. (You can click here for a little more insight into this.) And for those that are curious, it does contain a filter for EU cookie notices but under the curious label of "Prebake."
The developer has included a section for user filters, giving users the power to create their own blocking rules if so inclined. You have the ability to whitelist websites in the app, but there is also a Safari shortcut for whitelisting websites which is much more convenient. Generally speaking, you must manually update the filter list, but I have noticed that the app will check for updated filters if it is opened for the first time after being force closed.
You can locate the developer's website and forums in the 'About' section if you would like to learn more or need to contact the developer. However, the part I cannot wrap my head around is that the way to report issues is also located in this same section and not readily available on the main page. It is also the only way to report issues, as you cannot do it from the Safari shortcut, and it requires you to report issues via mail.app.
Blocking power - A
In my short time using Adguard, it has surprised me with how well it has worked. It is probably the only content blocker that has worked this well for me aside from Magic. Granted, it is not without its own warts, but the foundation is decent and I can only imagine that it will continue to improve going forward. Once again, the disclaimer of your mileage may vary applies here, as it always will.
NFL.com originally loaded as a blank white page but was fixed quite quickly after being reported and works fine now. Adguard works better with more sites than most of the other blockers I have tried. As a funny aside, no links on MacWorld worked when tapped on but I was able to circumvent this by using "Peek & Pop."
Update: MacWorld was broken due to the "Mobile ads" filter. With that turned off, the links worked as normal.
The following websites were tested using the English, Spyware, Social media, Mobile ads, Safari and EasyList China filters:
Time Magazine(^), CNN(*4), Yahoo (local), MacRumors, Amazon(^^), Fox News(*4), Huffington Post(*7), iMore, The Verge, The Wall Street Journal, MacWorld(*2), Apple, ImDB, Reddit, MLB.com, NBA.com, NFL.com, NHL.com, Giantbomb.com, Teamliquid.com, Anandtech, Ars Technica, iOSnoops.com, Mangastream.com, Mangareader.com, Techradar, GameSpot, IGN(*7)
Unless otherwise noted by the * symbol, all sites loaded correctly without any pop ups or blank advertising boxes.
^ Could not test if videos would load on Time.com since they are only available within the United States
^^ Some stuttering and lag was noted on certain searches
* Site did not load
*2 Site loaded correctly but clicking links on main page or subsequent page didn't work.
*3 Site loaded correctly but did not block all ad(s) on main page or subsequent site pages.
*4 Site did not correctly load all non ad page elements (e.g. pictures, video, text etc.)
*5 Site loaded correctly with no ads or pop ups. Empty advertisement blocks were noted.
*6 Site loaded correctly but did not stop pop up messages or redirects
*7 Site loaded correctly but did not block social media buttons
Speed - A
Adguard is one zippy app. Websites loaded quickly and I was rarely left waiting. There were a few instances in which websites took a little longer to fully load which could have been the result of my connection. However, I would often have to wait several seconds before a video would start playing on many websites, though overall I suppose it would be the exception rather than the norm.
It's faster than most of the competition and manages to retain functionality in many sites, which is often something that the fastest blockers are unable to do. In general, I have no complaints about the speed and it definitely felt faster than Magic, which is what I was using before.
Price and developer contact - A
Free, zero dollars, zip, nilch, nada. This app will cost you nothing more than a bit of your bandwidth to download. By the way, have I mentioned that Adguard is free? You can't beat that.
I have actually only contacted the developer once to report a broken website, but I received an email to inform me that they had received my report and were actively looking into it, which was a nice touch. The developer seems to be somewhat active on the forums and I'm guessing they have a Twitter account they can be reached at as well. Therefore, I suppose I should mark the "developer contact" portion of this with an asterisk as my interaction with them has been limited and I'm basing it on outside factors.
Overall rating - A
Adguard performs better than I expected; considering I have been trying out its sibling on my MacBook for a while now and it has worked well there, I should have expected it to work well, so why was I surprised? You'll have access to basic features like whitelisting and EU cookie notice filters, but their unconventional naming scheme for many filters means you may have to spend some time digging for what you want. Updating filters is as easy as the push of a button and even does so automatically on occasion, which I can't complain about.
I did find a couple things to complain about though. I hope that Adguard will add the ability to report issues from within the Safari shortcut. Currently, the only option available through the shortcut is to whitelist a site and it is quite inconvenient to have to leave Safari every time you want to report an issue.
And on that note, why do I have to drill down to a second layer in order to find the link to send a bug report? This likely would not have bugged me as much if I could report an issue through the shortcut, but you cannot do that! It really bugs me even until now and thankfully I've only ever had to report one site since if I had to do that a few more times, I might not have even bothered.
Allow me a slight tangent: as I've stated before, I don't expect blockers to work perfectly out of the box. I understand that this is a give and take scenario and I will need to put in some amount of effort to report issues when I come across them if I expect a blocker to improve. Not everyone will go to the same sites I do and using the same blocker I do, so I can't expect someone to do this for me; I am willing to do this. However, if you want users to put in the effort to do this, you have to make it easy/convenient for them! This is the complete opposite and if they want people to actually provide feedback, they really need to make some changes in this area.
Thank you for allowing me that rant. With all that I have said, I still think that Adguard does the job and does it very well. It's fast, works well and the developer is responsive/active. With some changes to how error reports are sent and maybe some additional regional features, of which there are already plenty, it has the potential to be the best blocker around. To anyone that asks, Adguard definitely receives my recommendation and I am giving it serious consideration to be my daily driver.
Updates made to the review on Dec 12, 2015. Added note regarding MacWorld functionality and amended part regarding useful ads, which has nothing to do with acceptable ads that you find in ABP.
Last edited:
Thanks for the review. Adguard is quite understated in terms of design with tons of features and filter lists to choose from and still keeping a simple layout. Developer @avatar-adg is also active on this forum addressing user queries, providing details on custom filters.
@wchigo
First of all, thank you for reviewing Adguard!
I'd like to comment on some parts of the review.
Planned on Adguard 1.1.0 release:
https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForiOS/issues/43
Makes sense, thank you! We'll change this:
https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForiOS/issues/59
Could you please tell me which filters did you have enabled in Adguard? Can't reproduce it with default set (English+Social+Spyware+Safari Filter).
That is not a business practice at all:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-ios-9-content-blocker-thread.1916783/page-101#post-22285380
The only way we earn is by selling our software.
It does updates filters in background. Update period is pretty big though, ~48 hours.
First of all, thank you for reviewing Adguard!
I'd like to comment on some parts of the review.
Planned on Adguard 1.1.0 release:
https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForiOS/issues/43
Makes sense, thank you! We'll change this:
https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForiOS/issues/59
Could you please tell me which filters did you have enabled in Adguard? Can't reproduce it with default set (English+Social+Spyware+Safari Filter).
That is not a business practice at all:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-ios-9-content-blocker-thread.1916783/page-101#post-22285380
avatar-adg said:
The only way we earn is by selling our software.
It does updates filters in background. Update period is pretty big though, ~48 hours.
Focus by Firefox - content blocking & tracking protection for your mobile browser by Mozilla
App Design & Features - C
Focus has a pretty bare bones feature set. You only have five options: block ad trackers, block analytics trackers, block social trackers, block other content trackers (may break some videos and web pages) and block web fonts. Aside from that, there is an 'About' section with some additional information and how-to. Focus has more in common with an app like Adblock Fast or Crystal in that it is "set and forget" and won't offer any user customization. In fact, it doesn't even have a whitelist as of this moment and due to that, there is also no Safari shortcut.
What is does have though, is a vaguely hypnotic wavelength pattern on the upper half of the screen when you open the app. It doesn't actually do anything, but on a personal level I think it's a nice piece of eye candy.
Blocking Power - B
Honestly, Focus seems to be primarily focused (ha!) with being a tracker blocker rather than a full-on content blocker like some of the others reviewed in this thread; it's almost as if ad blocking is simply a bonus feature they threw in. On the main page of the app, it describes itself as "improving privacy and may boost page load speed and lower your mobile data usage." Yes, the app does indeed block ads, but not as well as some of the best content blockers out there. I've definitely had more ads slip through in my experience with Focus compared to others, but to be fair it wasn't like I was seeing ads left and right.
Let it be noted that I saw many more large white spaces where ads normally would be in comparison to other content blockers, different than the type noted with *5 below. Almost any web site that had social buttons would have them show through as well; basically I was surprised if I didn't see them. Disclaimer: Your mileage may vary.
The following websites were tested: Time Magazine(^), CNN, Yahoo(*6), MacRumors, Amazon,
Fox News, Huffington Post(*5), iMore, The Verge, The Wall Street Journal, MacWorld(*2), Apple, ImDB, Reddit(*3), MLB.com, NBA.com, NFL.com(*4), NHL.com, Giantbomb.com, Teamliquid.com, Anandtech,
Ars Technica(*5), iOSnoops.com, Mangastream.com, Mangareader.com, Techradar, GameSpot(*4), IGN(*4)
Unless otherwise noted by the * symbol, all sites loaded correctly without any pop ups or blank advertising boxes.
^ Could not test if videos would load on Time.com since they are only available within the United States
* Site did not load
*2 Site loaded correctly but clicking links on main page or subsequent page didn't work.
*3 Site loaded correctly but did not block all ad(s) on main page or subsequent site pages.
*4 Site did not correctly load all non ad page elements (e.g. pictures, video, text etc.)
*5 Site loaded correctly with no ads or pop ups. Empty advertisement blocks were noted.
*6 Site loaded correctly but did not stop pop up messages or redirects.
*7 Site loaded correctly but did not block social media buttons.
Speed - B
If the rating above surprises you, I don't think it should. As mentioned in the previous section, the app even goes out of its way to inform you that it may boost page load speed (emphasis mine.) I had some instances where pages seem to hang for a while before the loading bar would finish and I noticed some sluggishness from time to time, though it never got to a point where I was ever really frustrated.
Price - A
The app is free. Free is a good price. I have nothing witty to say here so please feel free to insert your own witty remark.
Developer Contact/Reporting Issues - D
I have mixed feelings about the rating in this section. Considering Mozilla is a fairly well-known entity at this point, if you need to contact them, there are probably a lot of ways you can go about doing so. On the other hand, I don't think it is necessarily fair to overlook Focus's faults based on that fact.
Judging the app on its own merits, I have to say that it doesn't do a very good job of communicating how to get in touch with the developer. As mentioned previously, there is no Safari shortcut so you can't report any issues that way. There is also no clear cut bug reporting feature unlike in other apps like Purify, Magic, Adguard, etc. There is a support forum, but you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get there. Open the app, hit the 'About' button in the top left, select 'Help', hit the menu button in the top right and then choose 'Support Forum." As the name implies, it is really is just a support forum and not a true contact method or way to report bugs.
To further show how undercooked the app is, if you follow the above steps but choose "Ask a question" instead of "Support Forum," you are brought to what essentially seems like a FAQ page. On that page, they list the following products from left to right: Firefox, Firefox for Android and Firefox for iOS and you choose the one you want to learn more about. Not much wrong with that you say? Absolutely, except it always defaults to Firefox for Android as that is located in the centre. I would understand if they could detect what OS you're using and switch the default based on that, but clearly they aren't doing that since I am using an iPhone and it always defaults to the Android FAQ.
I'm actually tempted to give this section an 'F' but I just found that the 'Read More' section in 'About', which links to their manifesto, has links to their Twitter, Facebook and an actual 'Contact Us' link. Drilling into 'Contact Us' frustrates me even further as it is clearly geared towards answering questions regarding the Firefox browser or Mozilla in general, rather than anything to do with the app at all...
Overall rating - C
This has probably been the most conflicted I've felt about the rating for an app, which I suppose isn't saying much as its only my third time doing so.
In general, the app performs admirably against the competition in terms of its blocking ability and speed, but it is laughably behind the times in regards to features. For an app to come out at this point in time and not even have a whitelist is mind-boggling. It might be forgivable if it allowed for user filters, but it doesn't do that either. It does not even have a way for users to report issues easily or, if my experience so far holds true, at all.
Considering that Focus is developed by a large corporation, namely Mozilla, I imagine that support for it will be strong going forward. But I can't judge an app simply based on potential or what it will be in the future; I can only go by what is available to users now. I certainly hope that they have big plans in mind for future updates because as of right now, I don't feel like I can recommend Focus to anyone as their sole content blocker. You could perhaps pair it with another blocker if you so desire but I personally find that unnecessary.
If you're looking for a content blocker where you likely won't have to worry about support being unexpectedly dropped, Focus might be for you. For me, the lack of basic features and ability to report issues are deal breakers, especially when better content blockers like Adguard and Magic are available at the same price. Focus has a lot of catching up to do.
App Design & Features - C
Focus has a pretty bare bones feature set. You only have five options: block ad trackers, block analytics trackers, block social trackers, block other content trackers (may break some videos and web pages) and block web fonts. Aside from that, there is an 'About' section with some additional information and how-to. Focus has more in common with an app like Adblock Fast or Crystal in that it is "set and forget" and won't offer any user customization. In fact, it doesn't even have a whitelist as of this moment and due to that, there is also no Safari shortcut.
What is does have though, is a vaguely hypnotic wavelength pattern on the upper half of the screen when you open the app. It doesn't actually do anything, but on a personal level I think it's a nice piece of eye candy.
Blocking Power - B
Honestly, Focus seems to be primarily focused (ha!) with being a tracker blocker rather than a full-on content blocker like some of the others reviewed in this thread; it's almost as if ad blocking is simply a bonus feature they threw in. On the main page of the app, it describes itself as "improving privacy and may boost page load speed and lower your mobile data usage." Yes, the app does indeed block ads, but not as well as some of the best content blockers out there. I've definitely had more ads slip through in my experience with Focus compared to others, but to be fair it wasn't like I was seeing ads left and right.
Let it be noted that I saw many more large white spaces where ads normally would be in comparison to other content blockers, different than the type noted with *5 below. Almost any web site that had social buttons would have them show through as well; basically I was surprised if I didn't see them. Disclaimer: Your mileage may vary.
The following websites were tested: Time Magazine(^), CNN, Yahoo(*6), MacRumors, Amazon,
Fox News, Huffington Post(*5), iMore, The Verge, The Wall Street Journal, MacWorld(*2), Apple, ImDB, Reddit(*3), MLB.com, NBA.com, NFL.com(*4), NHL.com, Giantbomb.com, Teamliquid.com, Anandtech,
Ars Technica(*5), iOSnoops.com, Mangastream.com, Mangareader.com, Techradar, GameSpot(*4), IGN(*4)
Unless otherwise noted by the * symbol, all sites loaded correctly without any pop ups or blank advertising boxes.
^ Could not test if videos would load on Time.com since they are only available within the United States
* Site did not load
*2 Site loaded correctly but clicking links on main page or subsequent page didn't work.
*3 Site loaded correctly but did not block all ad(s) on main page or subsequent site pages.
*4 Site did not correctly load all non ad page elements (e.g. pictures, video, text etc.)
*5 Site loaded correctly with no ads or pop ups. Empty advertisement blocks were noted.
*6 Site loaded correctly but did not stop pop up messages or redirects.
*7 Site loaded correctly but did not block social media buttons.
Speed - B
If the rating above surprises you, I don't think it should. As mentioned in the previous section, the app even goes out of its way to inform you that it may boost page load speed (emphasis mine.) I had some instances where pages seem to hang for a while before the loading bar would finish and I noticed some sluggishness from time to time, though it never got to a point where I was ever really frustrated.
Price - A
The app is free. Free is a good price. I have nothing witty to say here so please feel free to insert your own witty remark.
Developer Contact/Reporting Issues - D
I have mixed feelings about the rating in this section. Considering Mozilla is a fairly well-known entity at this point, if you need to contact them, there are probably a lot of ways you can go about doing so. On the other hand, I don't think it is necessarily fair to overlook Focus's faults based on that fact.
Judging the app on its own merits, I have to say that it doesn't do a very good job of communicating how to get in touch with the developer. As mentioned previously, there is no Safari shortcut so you can't report any issues that way. There is also no clear cut bug reporting feature unlike in other apps like Purify, Magic, Adguard, etc. There is a support forum, but you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get there. Open the app, hit the 'About' button in the top left, select 'Help', hit the menu button in the top right and then choose 'Support Forum." As the name implies, it is really is just a support forum and not a true contact method or way to report bugs.
To further show how undercooked the app is, if you follow the above steps but choose "Ask a question" instead of "Support Forum," you are brought to what essentially seems like a FAQ page. On that page, they list the following products from left to right: Firefox, Firefox for Android and Firefox for iOS and you choose the one you want to learn more about. Not much wrong with that you say? Absolutely, except it always defaults to Firefox for Android as that is located in the centre. I would understand if they could detect what OS you're using and switch the default based on that, but clearly they aren't doing that since I am using an iPhone and it always defaults to the Android FAQ.
I'm actually tempted to give this section an 'F' but I just found that the 'Read More' section in 'About', which links to their manifesto, has links to their Twitter, Facebook and an actual 'Contact Us' link. Drilling into 'Contact Us' frustrates me even further as it is clearly geared towards answering questions regarding the Firefox browser or Mozilla in general, rather than anything to do with the app at all...
Overall rating - C
This has probably been the most conflicted I've felt about the rating for an app, which I suppose isn't saying much as its only my third time doing so.
In general, the app performs admirably against the competition in terms of its blocking ability and speed, but it is laughably behind the times in regards to features. For an app to come out at this point in time and not even have a whitelist is mind-boggling. It might be forgivable if it allowed for user filters, but it doesn't do that either. It does not even have a way for users to report issues easily or, if my experience so far holds true, at all.
Considering that Focus is developed by a large corporation, namely Mozilla, I imagine that support for it will be strong going forward. But I can't judge an app simply based on potential or what it will be in the future; I can only go by what is available to users now. I certainly hope that they have big plans in mind for future updates because as of right now, I don't feel like I can recommend Focus to anyone as their sole content blocker. You could perhaps pair it with another blocker if you so desire but I personally find that unnecessary.
If you're looking for a content blocker where you likely won't have to worry about support being unexpectedly dropped, Focus might be for you. For me, the lack of basic features and ability to report issues are deal breakers, especially when better content blockers like Adguard and Magic are available at the same price. Focus has a lot of catching up to do.
You are very welcome! Your app is a good one and in the process of doing the review, I think I may have been converted.
Please do.
Excellent. Will it still require users to report via mail.app or will changes be made to that as well?
Fantastic!
English+Spyware+Social+Mobile ads+Safari+EasyList China
Edit: I just tried MacWorld again with the 'Mobile Ads' filter turned off and links worked.
You know what? I remember reading that in the other thread but clearly it slipped my mind during the review. I will be sure to go back and amend that part of the review.
Ah, okay. Any plans to add an auto-update feature?
That's what I meant, it auto-updates filters
Update check is done in background every 48 hours. If update is found, it is downloaded and applied.Yet there can be issues with this (even in upcoming 1.0.3 version). Update & apply may take pretty much time as iOS lowers background process priority to "nothing". The problem is that iOS does not allow long running background tasks and may kill the app in process leaving filters semi-updated. We'll address it in the next update though:
https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForiOS/issues/37
In fact it will be done even sooner. I've just taken a look at upcoming 1.0.3 version and "Send Bug Report" is already on the main screen
For the next version (1.1.0) - yes, it will be through the mail app.
But we have a big plans for future releases, something like reports.adblockplus.org server:
https://reports.adblockplus.org/af7d8909-4d21-4b81-a933-02f765060662
So you'll be able to easily create a very detailed report of missed ad or incorrectly blocked content.
And, what's very important, we'll see all the details like filters used, requests list and such.
Of course we need more time to implement all this as it involves lots of both server- and client- side coding.
Maybe the filters weren't updated at that time?
We had an issue with macworld links, but it was resolved 2 weeks ago:
https://github.com/AdguardTeam/ExperimentalFilter/issues/982
Apple has restricted content blockers to Safari only, they might open it up. All browsers in iOS are base d on the same webkit used in Safari, so it's possible in future.