Good idea, but I wish there was a less harsh method. I have been using my iPad a lot recently and the thing that bugs me is that it’s almost impossible to listen to Spotify uninterrupted as you use Safari because of auto-playing videos (not just advertisements).

It’s completely obnoxious and there is no way to stop it. Safari takes control of sound even if the video does not have audio toggled on and pauses your Spotify. Then if you use control center to start it again, it plays iTunes. I can’t believe this hasn’t been fixed.

EDIT: Just tried Brave Browser and this is pretty great so far. Seems to be the best compromise. Thanks!

On iOS I swear by Dnscloak - local-only vpn that routes only DNS requests through pihole-enabled dns server of your choice: https://apps.apple.com/cz/app/dnscloak-secure-dns-client/id1...

I’ve been thinking about doing something like that, but would that stop auto-playing videos on news sites? Or are there specific filters for that?

Either way, do you find that the Adblock detection / nags are less reliable when you do it DNS based instead of the client?

Possibly the best feature of the Brave browser is having that be one tap away, remembered per-site. I really wish Firefox would copy it since I’m not optimistic about Brave’s longevity.

Ublock origin (in advanced mode), umatrix, and noscript each enable this functionality. Umatrix has the best UI of the three once you get used to it in my opinion. Go on YouTube and look for "the hated one" for great tutorials on JS blocking with umatrix and ublock origin.

uMatrix is wonderful. I can’t imagine browsing without it. The parent comments are talking about iOS, though, where there is unfortunately much less choice. Even “Firefox” on iOS isn’t really Firefox and can’t run normal extensions.

> Ublock origin (in advanced mode)

You can wholly block JavaScript in uBlock Origin without having to enable advanced mode, by using the per-site JavaScript master switch.[1]

* * *

[1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Per-site-switches#no-...

Yes, but then it's all or nothing. In advanced mode you can have a global configuration to block all third party scripts and frames, and then allow scripts from specific domains (or neutralize the global deny for that domain, so that block lists still work). Particularly useful when you just want to move forward and Google's captcha is blocked, but don't want to allow all the other 50 scripts on the site.

Try the umatrix extension

Applicable link:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/umatrix/

I should have been more specific that I wanted it on iOS, too. That’s a good option for desktop and worth mentioning.

Doesn't work on ios.

This is true. uMatrix's interface is difficult even where it works on Android. This calls for custom firewall rules and/or Privoxy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privoxy

That sounds a lot like noscript's functionality.

I also do this. Safari is my stateless browser, no cookies, no scripts, no location access, etc. And then Firefox or Brave are what I use for anything requiring Javascript. Though brave’s UI is much cleaner than FF.