Filtr is a new privacy tool that blocks ads in almost every iPhone and Mac app

Using an ad blocker is good for your security, privacy, and even the FBI recommends them to defend against online harm. However, as great as ad blockers are for cleaning up your browsing experience, these tools often do little to prevent pervasive tracking from in-app ads.

Now, thanks to a new feature in iOS 26 and macOS 26, a developer has created the first device-level ad blocker that works across all major Apple products — iPhone, iPad, and Mac — and isn’t just limited to the browser.

Filtr is a new tool created and maintained by Kaylee Serena Calderola, the developer behind popular Safari browser ad blocker Wipr. Wipr prevents ads from appearing in Safari, which means ads won’t load, and neither will the tracking code that advertisers use to follow you around the web and track the websites you visit. The result is a cleaner browsing experience, with no advertisers tracking your online activity.

Filter is a paid add-on included with Wipr that goes one step beyond browser ad blocking by blocking ads on iPhone, iPad and Mac apps. Filtr does this by using a new feature built into Apple’s latest software called URL filterswhich allows developers to block access to specific websites or domains at the network level rather than just in the browser.

I use ad blockers on various devices all the time (even if sites like this ask you to turn them off). I’ve used — full disclosure — Wipr as my primary ad blocker on my Apple devices for years as a paying customer. I also use ad blockers on other browsers on my desktop computers and I use a Pi-hole ad blocker, a small server that sits on my home network that blocks ads from reaching any of my devices connected to my home Wi-Fi.

However, this still leaves my devices largely open to ads when I’m not on my home network, as well as the various apps I use that are full of ads — including non-Safari web browsers.

As you can imagine, I wanted to give Filtr a spin. Filter held particular appeal because, as Calderola states its privacy policyits apps “do not collect personal data.” Her apps don’t either need to access any personal information to operate, and neither does Apple’s URL filter.

For me, it was an unthinkable – all upside down, and no return. I paid for the $5 annual subscription, added the URL filter to my iPhone, and that was it. The relief was immediate. Every app I opened loaded without the usual flood of ads. Some ad slots showed grayed out placeholders where the ads would have loaded.

Calderola told me this week that Filtr is the first app so far to use the URL filter feature. However, this may be partly because it was a “nightmare” to operate, some of which he described in a May blog post. Calderola said Apple’s documentation on the URL feature was sparse, requiring her to do a lot of legwork to understand how to implement and use the feature.

The URL filter feature is based on an ad block list maintained by Calderola. Calderolla explained that Filtr consults a “pre-filter” block list that is stored on the user’s device and kept constantly updated through automatic updates in the Wipr app. The pre-filter list determines if a site is not on the block list and, most of the time, the site loads normally. But if the pre-filter list finds that a site might be on the block list, it will quickly confirm the list on Calderolla’s servers. Calderola said these requests are routed through Apple’s servers as a proxy so app developers don’t know who’s querying their blocklists.

This means you can set up Filtr once and generally never have to think about it again. (For a security or privacy product, that’s high praise.)

There are some caveats, but far from dealbreakers. No ad blocker is perfect, but minimizing your exposure to ad networks as much as possible is a major win for your privacy. Filtr doesn’t always block ads served directly by the websites you visit. This means you may still see ads on Facebook, Google, and Reddit apps, as well as any other app that serves ads from its own domain, as blocking them could break the apps entirely. Calderola said, however, that Filtr may occasionally block these ads, as the feature is based on filtering specific web addresses rather than the entire domain. (Lifehacker also tested and reviewed Filtr and found that using their mobile sites instead of their apps will still allow Wipr to block ads.)

Wipr is a universal app that costs $5 on the Apple App Store and works on all your Apple devices. Filtering costs an additional $5 each year or $25 for a one-time lifetime payment via in-app purchase.