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We all know how annoying Ads can be on the screen of your Android device. The tiny screen, the never ending ads; it’s a nightmare! Although they are a way for app developers to make a living, and everyone should support them by any means necessary (buying premium apps, donating or clicking when you are really interested), they can be annoying and playing a game, using an app or just surfing can be quite irritating. Now, I’ll show you how to remove these ads from your Android phone, but keep in mind, there are different methods of blocking ads on rooted Androids and un-rooted Androids. While for rooted phones, all you have to do is install another app that takes care of the ads, on a un-rooted phone, the options are not that simple.

1. AdFree

This app is available on the Android Market and it’s really effective. You don’t have to spend too much time customizing it and it does the job really good (just download it from the Android Market and after install, click "Download & Install Hosts”. Although, for AdFree to work on your phone, you have to have it rooted. AdFree uses MVPS HOSTS file to filter the information and add to its blacklist the ads. After installing AdFree you must install the HOSTS file and restart your device, you also have to restart after any custom change to the app (such as manually adding an ad address to the blacklist). The coolest feature of this app is the possibility to set it to update itself every day, so you never have to update it yourself. Another cool feature of AdFree is that it blocks ads not only from your apps, but also from your Android browser. At this time, other browsers are not supported.

2. AdAway

AdAway is another app that takes care of those unwanted ads from your Android apps. As with AdFree, this app only works on rooted phones. AdAway is simple to use and it offers users an ad free Android. All you have to do is install the app, update it by clicking "Download files and apply ad blocking” and you’re all set. The option to manually add a domain is also available, and after each modification, for it to take effect, you have to restart your device. The interface of the app is very intuitive and the best part about it is that after you install it, you can forget it until the next update. Keep in mind, when you want to uninstall the app, you have to deactivate it first, if not, after you uninstall it, the ads will remain blocked.

These are 2 methods to remove ads from your apps, they only work for rooted phones, although, if you did not root your phone, there is a way to get rid of some ads, but only from your browser, not the best solution, but if you do lots of browsing, it might come in handy sometime.

3. Browser Filters

If do not have a rooted phone, then the possibility to remove ads from your smartphone is greatly reduced. The only option you have left is to create a browser filter to this. This option has been tested on both Opera and Firefox and they work pretty well.

On Firefox, all you have to do is go to add-ons and install the Adblock Plus extension and your all set. On the other hand, with Opera Mobile you have to put some muscle into it. You have to create a file calledurlfilter.ini on your SD card (or, better yet, in the Opera folder) and in it, add the domains you want to block or search for these lists on the web. After doing so, you must open Opera, write in the url bar opera:configand then search for URL filter, after this, you will see a bar asking you where the filter is located, there, click browse and point to your urlfilter.ini. After a reboot, your Opera Mobile filter is created.

These are the 3 main options you have if you want to remove ads from your Android apps. Although these are annoying sometime, I strongly suggest that you buy or donate when possible to the app designers.