How to get rid of advertisements on Android phones

by Sean Doyle · Published April 28, 2019 · Updated April 23, 2023

How to get rid of advertisements on Android devices

Advertisements on Android phones can appear anywhere including in apps, on websites, in games, and even on the home screen. Legitimate developers utilize advertisements to monetize their apps, websites, and games, and they only show advertisements inside their apps or on a webpage. On the other hand, there are other parties who push adware and infect legitimate apps with malware in order to force you to see advertisements whether or not you’ve agreed to it beforehand or are even aware of it.

There are legitimate advertisements that are served from well-founded networks like Google and Facebook. Legitimate advertisements appear in apps, in games, and on websites.

There are also advertisements that are served from adware. Adware may also use networks such as Google and Facebook to serve advertisements and the advertisements they serve may appear to be legitimate; However, the software has basically taken over your phone and is using your resources to

Uninstall adware

Adware can take over your phone and use your phone’s resources to serve advertisements. If this is the case then you may be able to uninstall adware from your Android phone, but you’ll need to know which app(s) to remove.

Did you recently install an app? If so, it could be showing advertisements on your phone.
Is there an app on your phone that you don’t recognize? Research it! Read user reviews about it, visit the app’s page in the Google Play store and decide for yourself if it’s worth keeping.
Legitimate apps can become infected with malware and can end up serving advertisements on your phone. Is there an app on your phone that is using more data than usual or acting strangely? check it out!

To view a list of all the apps on your phone go to Settings > Apps. If you click on an app in the list you can see how much mobile data and storage space the app is using. You can also uninstall the app or force it to stop.

Use Ad-blocking apps

There are many apps that can block advertisements in the Google Play store and some of them need to be configured to your internet browser. Ad blockers are not the best solution to block advertisements as some of them cannot be configured with other apps and cannot block advertisements efficiently.

Here’s a list of highly recommended apps that can help you get rid of advertisements on your phone:

AdBlock
AdClear
Unicorn Blocker
Adblock Fast
Adguard Content Blocker
Crystal
Disconnect Free

Install a security app

A good mobile security app can detect and remove adware from your phone. Some of the best mobile security apps for your Android phone are Norton and Malwarebytes.

Install and use a security app to block advertisements and stop adware from getting onto your phone in real-time.

Use a web browser that blocks ads by default

If you simply want to get rid of advertisements while you browse the web then the best solution is to use a web browser that blocks advertisements by default or has a built-in ad-blocker that can be enabled. There are many mobile web browsers with the ability to block ads in the Google Play store to choose from. Here’s a list of some of the mobile web browser with built-in ad-blockers that we like the best: