I know you can simply use a private dns with adguard but I like to control all the settings etc. So I have Adguard on my android phone and have a Lifetime License I paid for.
With that being said, why can’t I use the app without the VPN? Everytime I remove the VPN from them, it turns off my Adguard protection.
Any help and tips would be so appreciated.
It’s not a real VPN. It just uses a local VPN to filter content. Without it, it won’t work.
Ah okay. Yeah I totally thought of it like an actual VPN. Some of this confuses me.
There is a full actual AdGuard VPN you can buy that is a real VPN but it’s an extra payment aside from the normal AdGuard ad blocking service. AdGuard needs some way of intercepting all your traffic to block ads. So it creates a fake VPN that lets it do that. Without rooting your device, that’s basically the only way to block stuff.
That’s why I was lost haha. But this makes sense. I appreciate you taking time and explaining this to me.
I’m still confused because the same AdGuard adblock app works on an iPhone without needing to enable a VPN (no vpn icon in status bar), unlike on Android, where a local VPN is created (vpn icon show up in status bar), as you mentioned.
The free version of AdGuard for iPhone can only block content in Safari. That’s it. Not apps. Only Safari.
The paid version of Adguard for iPhone can either block content only in Safari (no local VPN needed) or it can be extended to block ads in any app (in which case it needs to create a local VPN, and will show the VPN icon in the bar, although there’s an unstable option not to show that icon but I wouldn’t recommend that setting).