How to Enable the Built-in Ad Blocker (AdBlock Plus) in Microsoft Edge on Android Right Now

Microsoft Edge on Android does have extension support, where Microsoft has made a few extensions available within Edge itself for users to add or install. This may change soon, where the company may offer a dedicated Add-ons Store for mobile, particularly for Android.

Microsoft boasts of Edge for Android, aka its AI-powered browser, coming with Copilot, where it can generate summaries, including videos with timestamps. Edge lets you stay safer online on Android with features like Password Monitor and InPrivate browsing. It also offers Microsoft Rewards, where you earn points when you search with Bing, which you can redeem for gift cards, donations, and more.

The selling point of Android Microsoft Edge could be extension support—that’s no surprise—but with a built-in Ad blocker such as AdBlock Plus and also support for uBlock Origin, it could be a unique feature that encourages users to actually use Edge on Android, considering Chrome doesn’t support extensions on mobile.

Microsoft claims, “Adblocker will not slow down your browser and can actually improve your browsing speed by blocking ads and pop-ups. Sites that rely on ads may not work as intended after they detect the ad blocker.”

The pain point here is that, as of now, the Edge Ad blocker cannot be enabled and used like before, where the “block ads” option used to be present under Privacy and Security. It has disappeared for some time since the transition to new settings happened—we noticed this when covering UBO Lite.

Microsoft Edge’s Ad Blocker on Android Disappeared? Here is how you can get it back

Don’t worry! You can still enable AdBlock Plus in Edge on Android. Here is how:

1. Open Microsoft Edge on Android.
2. Visit this official ad blocker demo link by Microsoft.
3. When asked to “Turn on Ad blocker to browse without interrupting ads”, Tap “Yes, turn on”.

That’s it! Ad blocking gets enabled, and you may find it more useful on YouTube as well.

There is also another way available. Since this happened due to new settings, you can disable them and restore old settings until Microsoft reintroduces the block ads option in the new settings.

Here’s how:

1. Open Edge release or stable.
2. Visit edge://flags.
3. Find “Edge Mobile new main settings v2”.
4. Set it to Disabled.
5. Restart Edge.

With this, old Edge settings will be restored, along with the Block Ads option. Now you can navigate to Settings > Privacy, Security, and Services > Block Ads and toggle Block Ads to On to enable the Ad blocker.