Block advertisements and more in iOS 9 with Silentium
When you’re surfing the Web on your iPhone or iPad, the last thing you probably want is to be bombarded with advertisements, scripts, and sometimes even images. While I don’t mind a few tastefully inserted ads on a page, there are a lot of sites that plaster them everywhere. For Web pages like that, it’s very handy that iOS 9 now allows content blockers. One of the many new arrivals on the App Store in that genre is Silentium.
Two-part setup
When you install Silentium, there is a two-part setup process you have to go through to get all of the features available. First, you need to make sure the General rules are enabled within Silentium itself. One nice feature of this app is that it includes regional databases, so you can block advertisements from Italy, Germany, France, or several other international ad networks. You can also whitelist pages here, if you so choose. Furthermore, Silentium has support for blocking scripts, images, cookie-law banners, and adult content.
Next, you should go to Settings > Safari > Content Blockers and make sure Silentium — General is toggled on. If you also want social networking buttons blocked, toggle Silentium — Social on, as well.
How it works
Pretty well, actually. As you can see below, ads are removed seamlessly, so you barely even notice they should have been there. It makes for a much cleaner Web browsing experience. In the first image below, you’ll see the advertisements.
In this second image, you see a much cleaner page, without any advertisements.
You can also see that the social networking buttons, which appear in the first image below, are gone in the second image. Silentium is quite intelligent about recognizing the buttons, even when the page is using its own custom icons for the links.
Final word
Silentium doesn’t seem to slow down your Internet browsing at all, and works remarkably well. If you want to remove ads and social media buttons from the pages you visit, this is an excellent choice. Silentium is designed for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and is available for $1.99 on the App Store. There are no ads or in-app purchases, either.
