Brave For Android Adds A Powerful Tool That Will Make Chrome Desktop Users Jealous

Contents

Brave for Android can block web page elements, and here is how it works

Summary

Brave for Android introduces a “Block Elements” feature to easily remove visual clutter from web pages.
Users can block specific page elements by tapping Shields, selecting “Block Element,” and choosing what to block.
Blocked elements can be restored easily, ensuring website functionality isn’t permanently affected.

Brave is one of the best privacy-focused browsers, offering built-in ad-blocking and robust security features. Beyond the default experience, you can also enhance your privacy and security by adjusting one of Brave’s key features: Shields. While this is available for desktop and mobile users, Brave for Android has added a new Shields option to let users take more control of their browsing, enough to make even Chrome desktop users jealous.

A smartphone screen with a browser open, the Android mascot, and some different browser logos around it.

The new Shields option in Brave for Android is called “Block Elements,” and it does exactly what the name suggests: blocks everything you feel is visual clutter on a web page. And the best part is that it’s super easy to use, as all you need is just a couple of taps.

Brave for Android can block web page elements, and here is how it works

The first thing you’ll need is the Brave for Android version 1.78 or newer. Now, visit any web page and tap the Shields option in the right corner of the URL bar, tap Advanced controls, and scroll to the bottom until you see the Block element option. Tap on it to choose which element of the current web page you want to block. However, you can block only one element at a time, so you have to repeat the steps every time to block whatever element you feel is unnecessary on a web page.

Once you block these web page elements, they aren’t gone forever. You can restore the original state of the web page by tapping the Clear all blocked elements, which is available as a Shields option only when you have blocked anything on a web page. This is a useful feature because, as Brave highlighted in its official blog post, blocking elements on web pages for a long time might break the normal functioning of those websites that change over time.

The ability to block elements on web pages has long been available for Brave for desktop, and now, it’s finally available for Android users. While this is a powerful tool, this isn’t something Brave first introduced to the world. In fact, it’s one of the popular features of the uBlock Origin extension, something Google Chrome desktop users are now missing because of Google’s ongoing transition from Manifest V2 to V3. The uBlock Origin Lite is a Manifest V3-supported extension and works on Chrome, but it’s not as effective as uBlock Origin, especially on websites that use anti-content blockers.

Even though uBlock Origin works on other non-Chromium browsers like Firefox and has element-blocking capabilities, what makes Brave unique is that this option is ready to use soon after you install the app on your Android phone. If you use it as the default browser, blocking elements on web pages is one of the ways you improve your web browsing experience on Brave.