Adblock Plus releases browser for Android and iOS

Adblock Plus has released its new browser for Android and iOS devices on the App Store and Google Play, respectively.

Adblock Plus works just like other mobile browsers, but it has the additional ad-blocking feature on top of many others. The browser's maker said the new browser can block malware and help users consume lesser battery and mobile data while Internet surfing, according to NDTV.

Last May, Adblock released the beta version of Adblock Plus, which was updated this week to version 1.0.0. Adblock Plus has previously been available as a stand-alone app that blocks ads on Android devices. However, Google Play pulled it out in 2013, the report details.

While Adblock's features have been available on Android and iOS in recent years, both mobile operating systems consider them as third-party apps and therefore are disallowed under the default settings.

The launching of the Adblock Plus browser comes ahead of Apple's unveiling of the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and the latest iPad and Apple Watch models on Wednesday. Adblock may have been looking to gain traction over Apple by releasing its own ad-blocking browser before its rival unveiled its Safari extensions with similar features, but the company denied this, VentureBeat reports.

"We've been developing Adblock Browser for months, long before Apple made the announcement about iOS 9," an Adblock spokesperson told VentureBeat.

Eyeo, the German maker of the Adblock Plus software, explained that the app is based on an iOS platform called the Kitt browser. Developers use this platform to make their task of customizing browsers much easier.

The Adblock Plus browser will only keep out "annoying ads." The nonintrusive ones, on the other hand, will still be shown. However, users can still block those if they want to, the report relays.

Users can download the Adblock Plus browser from the App Store and the Google Play to sample it.