Samsung phones on Android Lollipop finally get popular ad-blocking feature

By Robert Nazarian Published March 30, 2016

Back in February, Samsung enabled ad-blocking in its Android Internet app, but it only worked on devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Unfortunately, that covered only a handful of devices, but we have good news. The Korean giant updated Internet 4.0 to support all Samsung devices on Android 5.0 Lollipop as well. To top it off, Samsung added a new Secret Mode that’s sure to tick of the FBI.

The advantage to ad-blocking is not only a faster, smoother experience when loading web pages, you’ll also save a ton of data when you’re away from a Wi-Fi network. A recent survey showed that 25 percent of smartphone owners are using ad-blocking apps.

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This ad-blocking feature works only when you download and enable a 3rd party app from Google Play that can block all advertisements. Examples include Adblock Plus, Adblock Fast, and Crystal. It’s important to understand that these ad-blocking apps only work with Samsung’s Internet app, not Google’s Chrome browser.

Compatible phones include the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, Note 5, S6 Edge+, S6 Edge, S6, S6 Active, Note 4, S5, S5 Neo, S5 Active, S5 Sports, S5 LTE A, Note 3, S4, S4 Duos, S4 Active, S4 LTE A, A7, A8, A5x, A7x, and A9x.

Internet 4.0 also includes a new Secret Mode, which is very similar to Chrome’s Incognito mode in that your browser history isn’t saved. However it takes it up a notch by adding encryption. All your bookmarks and saved pages will be saved in a separate place with the same level of encryption as Samsung Knox. You can even use your fingerprint to enter Secret Mode.

Another cool new feature is that you can watch online HTML5 videos in a popup window so you can continue to browser other web pages. The app also maintains your viewed video history so that you can revisit them more easily whether it be on your phone or the Gear VR.

In addition, developers can utilize Custom Tabs for apps that require Android WebView. Lastly, the Internet app now supports push notifications from web sites that enable them.

You can download Samsung Internet 4.0 for Android from Google Play.

Robert Nazarian

Former Contributor

Robert Nazarian became a technology enthusiast when his parents bought him a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color. Now his biggest…

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