HACKER Q&A
📣 markrankin

Why is uBlock Origin not available on iOS devices?


Why is it available via browsers on Mac OS?


  👤 cookiengineer Accepted Answer ✓
Because Safari and its WebView process are still the only processes allowed to run JIT compilers.

Other Browsers on iOS are just unaccelerated Safari Webviews.

In order to have a real Browser on iOS, with a real Web Extension API (manifest v2/v3) users would need to jailbreak their devices.

This has been going on for decades, and Apple pretty much gives zero effs about it.


👤 orbz
I would guess it using a blocking mechanism that isn’t compatible with the plugin system that iOS safari supports. There are at least other ad blockers in the AppStore.

👤 Raed667
Look at how Adguard built their safari extension. It is basically an electron app that talks to the browser. Not really in the spirit of uBlock.