Trusted Reviews is supported by its audience. If you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

iOS 9 brings ad-blockers to Safari web browser

Apple waxed lyrical on iOS 9 at this week’s WWDC developer conference, but it skimmed over one exciting new feature.

It turns out iOS 9 will be the first of Apple’s mobile operating systems to allow ad blocking on Safari.

Developers can now code apps to include ‘content blocker’ extensions that can prevent parts of web pages from loading.

This means that you won’t have to suffer through ads when Apple rolls out its next mobile OS in the autumn.

The new Safari release brings Content Blocking Safari Extensions to iOS,” explains the Apple developer memo.

It continues: “Content Blocking gives your extensions a fast and efficient way to block cookies, images, resources, pop-ups, and other content.”

Related: Android M vs iOS 9

Ad blocking has already been around for a while on Mac OS, but plug-in architecture has been limited for a while on iOS Safari.

The feature is also available on Android devices too, so Apple is mostly playing catch-up with this latest move.

This isn’t good news for everyone however; all manner of companies are set to lose out on revenue as a healthy chunk of iPhone users begin blocking web advertisements.

iOS 9 is currently available to developers, and will roll out next month as part of a public beta. The full consumer release is scheduled for autumn this year.

Why trust our journalism?

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

author icon

Editorial independence

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

author icon

Professional conduct

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.

Trusted Reviews Logo

Sign up to our newsletter

Get the best of Trusted Reviews delivered right to your inbox.

This is a test error message with some extra words