That's harder to do on mobile devices. Good system-wide, every-network adblocking on Android requires root. It's hard to obtain root on some devices, and Google is actively aiding app makers to block rooted devices with SafetyNet. I lack experience with iOS, but I assume the situation is worse there.
As a practical matter, this means that while I can tell my mother to install uBlock Origin on her desktop browser, it isn't practical for me to tell her to root her phone and run Adaway on it.
Of course, most people use smartphones much more than they do PCs lately.
It's doable when without root. In my case I simply run PiHole on a server and use it as the default DNS for my VPN. Install Wireguard on the phone, connect to the VPN, and there you go - all of your DNS requests now go through PiHole.
iOS is better than you think. allows limited adblocking in Safari, think of it as 'uBlock lite'. Due to limitations regarding size, etc, not everything can be blocked, however, do not track provides a bit more in this sense. Beyond that? Yattee blocks 100% of Youtube ads + sponsorships (I personally do not have an issue with sponsorships, but YouTube can eat it with their ads), Apollo does not show ads for Reddit, etc. (Note that Apollo is the absolute best way to view Reddit on the internet. period.)
I suspect Apple will improve things in the future. Media/News companies have attempted to vilify Apple by saying they are 'getting into the ad business', however I suspect that Apple will (as usual) take a user centric approach with expanding their ad business. I am absolutely not the person to defend Apple 24/7, however their privacy practices have been great.
I have a VPS with a Wireguard VPN that runs a PiHole DNS on it. Just toggling the VPN switch on Android is sufficient to get all the DNS requests to tracking domains flushed down the sinkhole - no root required.
Granted, it takes some technical skills to set up, but once it's set up other people can easily connect to the same VPN and have the same level of protection - my wife's and my mother's phones are also connected to the same VPN.
> I lack experience with iOS, but I assume the situation is worse there.
I use NextDNS (sort of "Pi-hole-as-a-Service"), which provides a "configuration profile […] that will make your device use NextDNS natively using the Encrypted DNS feature". I can't imagine it being any easier, really.
You don't need to root your device to set the DNS. MiUI does hide the setting, but stock android has it in the settings. You can then set your DNS to dns.adguard.com or create a nextDns account. Then you can block ads system wide.
As a practical matter, this means that while I can tell my mother to install uBlock Origin on her desktop browser, it isn't practical for me to tell her to root her phone and run Adaway on it.
Of course, most people use smartphones much more than they do PCs lately.