Microsoft Edge browser for Android and iOS now includes a native adblocker

Following Chrome and Opera’s lead, Microsoft has now decided to bring native adblocking to its Edge  browser for Android and iOS. [caption id=“attachment_4596881” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] The adblocker has been added to the Edge browser for both smartphones and tablets. Image: Microsoft[/caption] According to a report by TheNextWeb, Microsoft had earlier begun rolling the adblocker to users on the beta version of Edge for Android and has now confirmed that it would be added to the stable version as well. The feature may not show up immediately but a broader roll-out in the form of an update is expected to arrive soon. Enabling the adblocker does not require an installation and is as simple as turning on a toggle in the browser settings, similar to Opera’s adblocker on its browser for Android. As per a report by The Verge, Microsoft has partnered with Adblock Plus to power its native adblocker, which is a much more aggressive move than say Google’s native ad-blocker which filters very few ads in comparison. What this means is that you will likely see no adverts pop up once the feature goes live. Unlike Google’s built-in ad-blocker which only filters out ads it deems “bad” and Mozilla’s ad-blocker which works only when browsing in private mode, Microsoft’s adblocker could mean trouble for websites dependent on advertising revenue. But the challenge for Microsoft remains to get more people to adopt Edge as it has only 5 million downloads on the Google Play Store since its launch in November last year.