Firefox Adds Built-In Ad Blocker for iOS, Off by Default

Mozilla has added a native ad blocker to Firefox on iOS, working around Apple’s restrictions on browser extensions by building the feature directly into the app. It leans on Apple’s WebKit Content Blocker API and the community-maintained EasyList filter set to stop many third-party ads and ad-related trackers from loading. Users enable it under Settings > Browsing > Ad Blocker; it ships turned off, leaving the choice to the individual.

The blocking is deliberately partial. Ads served first-party by the site itself, ads in search results, and Firefox’s own sponsored new-tab shortcuts are untouched. The feature layers on top of Firefox’s existing Enhanced Tracking Protection rather than replacing it. Mozilla frames the limited scope around the economics of the open web, noting that advertising funds many of the publishers and creators users rely on.

The move highlights the structural gap between platforms: on desktop and Android, Firefox supports a full ecosystem of third-party privacy and ad-blocking extensions, but iOS’s sandboxed model forces vendors to bake such functionality in natively. It’s a modest but notable expansion of user control on a platform where browser makers have little room to differentiate.