Be a Genius and take back control of your Safari browsing experience

Ever since Apple allowed the use of Safari content blockers in iOS 9, a great many apps have been released to give users the ability to control what they see while surfing on Apple’s mobile Web browser. Some of the more popular ones include Crystal, Purify, 1Blocker, and Focus by Firefox. And now, joining their ranks is the recently released Genius AdBlocker.

How to enable Genius

Like any other content blocker, Genius needs to be activated first before you can block content in Safari with it. To do so, after downloading Genius from the App Store, open the Settings app, tap Safari, select Content Blockers, and turn on the switch for Genius.

Thereafter, Genius content blocking will be in effect whenever you browse in Safari or any other app that uses Safari View Controller.

How to customize Genius

By default, Genius blocks ads only on Safari Web pages. But if you’re so inclined, you can also enable the app’s advanced blockers.

Just open the Genius app, go to the Preferences tab, and toggle the switches for blocking tracking scripts, social widgets, images, and other scripts.

In addition, you can tap Whitelisted Sites to add websites that you want to exempt from having their ads and scripts blocked by Genius, thereby letting you support these sites perhaps in exchange for producing quality content.

What are the benefits of Genius?

Like other content blockers, Genius is aimed at improving browser performance while safeguarding user privacy. Specifically, the app is being touted by its developer as having the following advantages:

Blocking ads can increase your browsing speed by up to 600%!

Keeps your browsing experience safe and secure– no more risk of tracking ads or malware taking advantage of your browsing history.

Increased browsing speed can help to save up to 50% of your battery life.

Save your data plan by 50%: ads can take up a lot of data without you knowing or wanting them to.

While I can’t verify Genius’ quantitative claims, I can say that, based on my testing, Genius is quite effective in blocking ads and other types of content and in making my browsing a generally smoother experience.

Download Genius AdBlocker to see for yourself. Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad running iOS 9.0 or later, the app is available now on the App Store for $0.99.