How to Get Rid of Ads on My Phone: Android & iPhone Guide

Ads on your phone come from different sources — apps you installed, websites you visited, your browser, or even built-in manufacturer apps. There is no single switch that turns them all off, but matching the right fix to the right ad type gets rid of most of them quickly.

Quick Answer — How to Stop Ads on Your Phone Right Now

The fix depends on where the ads are showing up. Pop-ups appearing over your home screen almost always come from a recently installed app. Ads in your notification tray come from either apps or websites you gave notification permission to. Ads inside apps are usually just how free apps work — and those are harder to eliminate without paying or switching apps.

Here is a quick-reference breakdown:

Ad Type	Where It Appears	Platform	Fastest Fix
Pop-up ads	Over apps or home screen	Android / iOS	Uninstall recently added apps
Lock screen ads	Lock screen	Android	Disable lock screen notifications per app
Notification ads	Notification tray	Android / iOS	Turn off app or website notifications
Browser ads and pop-ups	Chrome or Safari	Android / iOS	Block pop-ups in browser settings
In-app banner or video ads	Inside free apps	Android / iOS	Use paid version or ad-free alternative
Personalised ads	Across multiple apps	Android / iOS	Disable ad personalisation in OS settings
Manufacturer system app ads	Built-in OEM apps	Android only	Disable personalised services per app
YouTube and streaming ads	YouTube and video apps	Android / iOS	YouTube Premium or DNS-based blocker

Why Does Your Phone Keep Showing Ads?

Most phone ads are not a sign something is wrong. Free apps are built on ad revenue — that is how developers make money without charging upfront. What feels intrusive is usually one of four things.

Ads Pushed by Apps You Downloaded

Third-party apps, particularly free ones from lesser-known developers, sometimes push ads outside their own interface. You might see a pop-up on your home screen or lock screen with no obvious source. In practice, this is almost always a recently installed app running in the background.

Ads From Websites via Push Notifications

At some point, a website asked if it could send you notifications — and you tapped Allow. That permission lets sites push what look like system notifications but are actually ads. Users often forget they granted this, which makes these ads particularly confusing.

It is not just websites doing this — as reported by TechCrunch, apps like Uber have tested pushing third-party brand ads directly through push notifications, sending them when users are not even actively using the app.

Ads Built Into Manufacturer Apps

Samsung, OPPO, and other Android manufacturers include promotional content inside system apps like the file manager, app store, or phone manager app. These are not malware. They are deliberate monetisation choices — and most of them can be turned off individually.

Personalised Ads Based on Your Data

Both Google and Apple use your app usage, location, and browsing behaviour to serve ads that feel relevant to you. These are not pop-ups — they appear inside apps and browsers. What is often overlooked is that the source of this targeting goes beyond just apps.

As reported by The Washington Post, mobile carriers including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon automatically enrol customers in ad programmes that use browsing history, app usage, and sometimes location data to profile users for advertisers — and most people are unaware they were opted in at all.

Turning off personalisation does not remove ads entirely but makes them generic instead of targeted.

How to Tell If It Is Adware or Just Normal Ads

This distinction matters. Normal in-app ads appear inside an app while you are using it. Adware behaves differently.

Signs you may have adware rather than normal ads:

Ads appear when no app is open
Ads show on your home screen or lock screen randomly
You installed an unknown app recently and ads started shortly after
Your phone battery is draining faster than usual
You see ads for things completely unrelated to anything you use

If the ads stay only inside apps, that is normal advertising behaviour. If they break out of apps onto your home screen, that is the problem to fix.

How to Get Rid of Ads on My Phone: Android Steps

Android gives you more control than most people realise. The process works in layers — identify the source first, then block it at the right level. Trying to stop pop-up ads on your phone starts here.

Step 1 — Use Safe Mode to Confirm an App Is Causing the Ads

Before uninstalling anything, check whether a third-party app is actually responsible.

Press and hold the power button
Long press Power Off on screen
Tap OK to restart in Safe Mode
At the bottom of your screen you will see "Safe mode"
Use your phone normally for a few minutes

If the ads stop in Safe Mode, a third-party app is confirmed as the cause. If they continue, the source is a system app or browser setting.

Step 2 — Find and Uninstall the Responsible App

Open Google Play Store
Tap your Profile picture > Manage apps and device
Go to Manage > sort by Last used
Look for apps used around the time ads started
Uninstall one at a time, restarting between each removal
Stop when the ads disappear

This method takes a little patience but consistently works when the cause is a recently installed app.

Step 3 — Remove Apps That Resist Uninstalling

Some adware grants itself device administrator privileges to block removal. If the Uninstall option is greyed out:

Go to Settings > Security
Tap Device admin apps (or More security settings on some models)
Find the app and disable its admin privileges
Go back to Settings > Apps and uninstall it

Step 4 — Restrict Background Activity of Suspicious Apps

If you want to keep an app but stop it pushing ads when you are not using it:

Go to Settings > Apps > select the app
Tap Battery
Select Restricted

This prevents the app from running in the background, which stops most out-of-app ad behaviour.

Step 5 — Enable Play Protect

Open Google Play Store
Tap your Profile picture > Play Protect
Tap the settings icon and turn on Scan apps with Play Protect

Play Protect scans installed apps for harmful behaviour and flags apps known to push intrusive ads.

Step 6 — Block Pop-Up Ads in Google Chrome

Open Chrome and tap the three-dot menu
Go to Settings > Site settings
Tap Pop-ups and redirects — toggle Off
Go back and tap Ads — toggle Off

Step 7 — Stop Website Push Notifications in Chrome

Open Chrome > Settings > Site settings
Tap Notifications
Toggle Notifications to Off to block all sites
Scroll to Exceptions and turn off any sites listed there individually

Step 8 — Remove Ads From Your Lock Screen

Go to Settings > Notifications
Tap the app sending lock screen notifications
Toggle off Show on Lock Screen

Repeat for each app pushing lock screen content you did not ask for.

How to Get Rid of Ads on iPhone

The iPhone's closed ecosystem means adware-style pop-ups appearing outside apps are rare. What most iPhone users deal with is personalised advertising inside apps and notification spam. Blocking ads on iPhone largely comes down to privacy and permission settings.

Turn Off Personalised Ads From Apple

Go to Settings > Privacy & Security
Tap Apple Advertising
Toggle off Personalised Ads

This stops Apple from using your data to target ads inside its own apps like the App Store and Apple News. Ads still appear — they just become generic.

Stop Apps From Tracking You Across Other Apps

Go to Settings > Privacy & Security
Tap Tracking
Toggle off Allow Apps to Request to Track

This is one of the more effective controls on iOS. When tracking is off, advertisers cannot build a profile across apps, which reduces the relevance — and often the volume — of targeted ads.

Block Pop-Ups in Safari

Go to Settings > Safari
Toggle on Block Pop-ups

Manage Notification Ads on iPhone

Go to Settings > Notifications
Tap each app you want to control
Toggle off Allow Notifications

Unlike Android, iPhones rarely show ads outside of apps you are actively using. If pop-ups are appearing over your home screen on an iPhone, check your Safari notification permissions first — that is the most common cause.

How to Turn Off Personalised Ads Using Google's Android Settings

This is the section most guides skip. Android has its own ad privacy controls separate from any individual app, and they apply across your Google account.

What These Settings Actually Do

Google's Ad Privacy settings control three things: what topics Android thinks you are interested in, which apps have suggested ads about you to other apps, and whether your ad interactions are tracked to measure campaign performance. Turning these off reduces personalisation system-wide.

How to Turn Off Ad Topics on Android

Go to Settings > Google > All Services
Under Privacy & Security, tap Ads Privacy
Tap Ad topics and toggle off

How to Turn Off App-Suggested Ads

In Ads Privacy, tap App-suggested ads
Toggle off for individual apps or disable entirely

How to Opt Out of Ad Measurement

In Ads Privacy, tap Ad measurement
Toggle off

These settings do not remove ads from apps. What they do is reduce the precision with which ads are targeted to you specifically, which in practice means fewer ads that feel uncomfortably accurate.

Manufacturer-Specific Ad Settings

Some Android manufacturers include promotional content in their default system apps. This is a deliberate business decision — and most of it can be switched off.

How to Remove Ads on Samsung Galaxy Phones

Turn off Samsung Customisation Service:

Open Settings > Samsung Account
Tap Privacy > Customisation Service
Toggle off

This does not eliminate Samsung ads entirely but stops them from being personalised using your data.

Mute notification ads from Samsung apps:

Go to Settings > Notifications
Find the Samsung app sending ads
Toggle off notifications for that app

Block ads in Samsung Internet Browser:

Open Samsung Internet > tap the three lines
Go to Settings > Sites and downloads
Toggle on Block pop-ups
Go back and tap Ad blockers
Download and activate a suggested ad blocker

How to Remove Ads on OPPO / ColorOS Phones

OPPO system apps each have their own personalised services toggle. You need to disable them individually.

Phone Manager: Three dots > Settings > Privacy > turn off Personalised Recommendations
App Market: My Account > Settings icon > Privacy Settings > Ads & Recommendations > turn off Personalised Advertising
My Files: Three dots > Settings > Privacy > turn off Personalised Services
Weather App: Settings icon > About Weather > turn off Personalised Services
Calendar App: Three dots > Calendar Settings > Displayed Items > turn off Personalised Services

The Music and Videos system apps on ColorOS currently have no ad toggle. Avoiding auto-updates for those specific apps is a common workaround, though it does mean missing any security patches included in updates.

Should You Use an Ad Blocker or Private DNS?

Built-in settings handle most ad problems for most people. But if you want more coverage — especially for ads that slip through in-app — there are broader tools worth knowing about.

Method	Works On	Scope	Ease of Use	Key Limitation
Uninstall adware apps	Android / iOS	App-level	Easy	Must identify the correct app first
Browser pop-up blocker	Browser only	Browser-level	Easy	No effect on in-app ads
Disable notifications	Android / iOS	Per app or site	Easy	Must disable individually
Private DNS (e.g. AdGuard DNS)	Android	System-wide	Moderate	May conflict with work or office networks
Third-party ad blocker app	Android / iOS	Varies by app	Moderate	Effectiveness varies widely
Paid app version	Specific app	In-app only	Easy	Costs money, per app
YouTube Premium	YouTube only	YouTube only	Easy	Monthly subscription required

What Happens to Apps When You Block Their Ads

Worth knowing: some free apps detect when their ads are being blocked and respond by restricting features or displaying a prompt asking you to whitelist them. This is not universal, but it does happen. If an app you rely on stops working after you enable an ad blocker, that is likely why.

Private DNS is the most effective system-wide approach for Android users comfortable with settings. AdGuard DNS (dns.adguard.com) is the most commonly referenced option. It works at the network level, meaning it blocks ad requests before they reach your apps — but it can interfere with corporate or school network environments.

What to Do If Ads Still Will Not Go Away

If you have worked through the steps above and ads are still appearing, particularly outside of apps, the most reliable next step is a Safe Mode check as described earlier. If ads stop in Safe Mode but you cannot identify which app is causing them, consider doing a factory reset as a last resort — but back up your data first.

Persistent ads that survive Safe Mode and do not trace to any installed app may indicate a compromised browser profile or, in rare cases, a system-level issue. At that point, contacting your phone manufacturer's support is the most appropriate path.

Conclusion

There is no master off switch for phone ads. Match the fix to the ad type — browser settings for web pop-ups, notification controls for tray ads, app removal for home screen intrusions, and OS-level privacy settings for personalised targeting. Layering two or three of these together covers most situations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I completely remove all ads from my phone for free?

Not entirely. In-app ads in free apps are part of how those apps are funded. You can block most pop-ups, notification ads, and browser ads for free. Removing in-app ads usually requires a paid upgrade or switching to an ad-free alternative.

Will blocking ads break the apps I use?

Sometimes. Some free apps detect ad blockers and restrict access or prompt you to whitelist them. This is more common with ad-blocker apps and Private DNS than with built-in browser settings.

Is Private DNS safe to use for blocking ads?

Generally yes for personal use. The most widely used option is AdGuard DNS. It can cause connection issues on work or school networks that use their own DNS configurations.

How do I know if my phone has adware or just normal ads?

Normal ads stay inside apps. Adware pushes ads to your home screen, lock screen, or notification tray with no clear app source. A Safe Mode test quickly confirms whether a third-party app is responsible.

Can I stop ads on YouTube without paying?

YouTube's own ad controls are limited without Premium. A Private DNS or third-party ad-blocker app can reduce YouTube ads on Android, but effectiveness varies and YouTube actively works to block these methods.