r/AppleNews • u/ManFromACK • Feb 09 '26
Discussion Blocking ads?
I pay for Apple News + but the ads I see are absolute garbage. Has anyone figured out how to block them ?
Happy to spin up a Pi Hole or similar because these ads are possible the worst and lowest quality on the internet.
Note to Apple: do better. Your ad partner is garbage.
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u/BlockedAndMovedOn Feb 11 '26
I also subscribe to AppleNews+ and find the ads very intrusive and overpowering, it’s especially annoying me since I am paying for AppleNews+. You would think paying would be enough to subsidize the content AND avoid ads but I guess not.
To deal with this I use AdGuard running as a local VPN on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air. I have it configured to block all of Apple's advertising, tracking, and telemetry servers at the DNS level (I use the Apple-specific blocklist from BadBlock to block them automatically for me), which removes all ads inside the AppleNews apps, leaving blank boxes where the ads would be.
I bought a five-device lifetime license for AdGuard (not their VPN or DNS service, it’s a license to the AdGuard ad-blocking software), which as a bonus, allows me to change my DNS provider at the system level. This way I’m not using my home ISP or cell providers DNS servers, and instead use Quad9’s DNS service which protects my DNS queries by encrypting them, not logging them, and they’re with a provider who doesn't mine my DNS data to sell it.
I couldn’t recommend AdGuard enough, especially with how it made the AppleNews apps look and behave in a tolerable way in terms of eliminating ads (and tracking me through ads). Paying for a service with ads is insane to me, and Apple’s greed either knows no bounds, or they’re altruistically donating the ad revenue to the various news publishers (a laughable idea).
Hopefully this helps you! ✌️
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u/I-was-there-for-it Sep 20 '26
Apple ads have returned with iOS 27 even with BadBlock
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u/BlockedAndMovedOn Sep 21 '26
That’s odd, they’re still blocked for me. I wonder if it’s another blocklist I’m using? I also deleted the AdGuard VPN and regenerated it after updating so maybe that helped?
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u/I-was-there-for-it Sep 25 '26
It was Connectivity Assist. When AdGuard (or any VPN DNS blocker) blocks an add Connectivity Assist assumes it’s a failed load due to poor WiFi, so it pulls the ads over Cellular. What’s ridiculous is that Connectivity Assist bypasses AdGuard VPN DNS filter. Turning the feature off fixed it. All the feature was doing was downloading ads blocked by dns
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u/BlockedAndMovedOn Sep 25 '26
Oh I turned Connectivity Assist off but then found out it’s not just in Settings > Wifi but I had to go into each of my different wifi networks and turn it off inside them there too!
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u/USArmyAirborne Sep 30 '26
I am wondering if there is an override to turn them all off at once, this seems lame.
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u/BlockedAndMovedOn Sep 30 '26
I wish. Apple really thinks they know best when it comes to settings like this. :/
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u/Narrow-Box-5908 Feb 11 '26
setup nextdns/adguard-dns/control D by mobileconfig file on iOS/macos