[Android Apps and Games] Daria Adguard Team:
Adguard for Android v2.9.1 Beta

Hello!

Many (or at least some) of you remember the release of Adguard 2.5 almost a year ago, and how huge it was. It brought HTTPS filtering, UI changes, new localizations and much more. There has been nothing close to it ever since in terms of the amount and impact of changes. Obviously, the next big one' was meant to be Adguard v3.0, but we feel like it is still going to take a while to release it, so we might as well implement some of the new features right away.

[Improved] New app navigation system #969

[IMG="Menu"]https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/8577533/23521150/e5302fee-ff8e-11e6-9b0e-388fd8970d48.png[/IMG] [IMG="Side menu"]https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/8577533/23521167/f1798e8a-ff8e-11e6-9c80-1383a004b1ae.png[/IMG]

Alright, we realize that when it comes to changing the design, there's going to be a controversy. There will always be those who find it better than the old one, and there will always be those who don't. Our hope the majority of users will find the new navigation system more convenient.

What exactly has changed? There is now a side-loaded menu, which will help to navigate through the app more easily. Besides taht, we can finally utilize the context menu in the top-right corner, you can find an example of this in 'Apps Management' section. By the way, 'Apps management' will now include all Firewall settings as well. Having these two sections together at the same time felt excessive and confusing.

[Added] Filtering Log #11

[IMG="log"]https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/8577533/23521269/53ea8a24-ff8f-11e6-82f6-434607111403.png[/IMG] [IMG="request"]https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/8577533/23521274/566b4946-ff8f-11e6-9d8c-345669a925f3.png[/IMG] [IMG="add rule"]https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/8577533/23521276/586c79d6-ff8f-11e6-8a35-cc94937191b6.png[/IMG]

Oh, boy. Anyone who has ever tried to check what's being filtered/blocked knows the struggle of inspecting Adguard's log file. It was the only way, and I doubt there is a single user who found it convenient. No surprise, as it was initially meant to be used by filters developers only. We were thinking: "Why would anyone want to see what their apps do?". We completely ignored tech savvy people who do care about it and do want to have a complete control of what is going on on their device.

We'd like to apologize for this. We should have implemented filtering log functionality a long time ago. Well, better late than never. The filtering log has arrived, come and see for yourself. We don't expect to hit the nail on the head on the first try, so your feedback on what's lacking and what you can live without is invaluable.

Ad Blocking

[Added] $network basic rules modifier #1032

[Added] Support for exception rules #815

[Changed] The behavior of the *third-party* modifier #891

[Changed] Websites cache is now suppressed after filters change #946

[Fixed] Regular expressions with $ symbol aren't processed properly #1027

Networking

[Added] An option to not filter HTTPS on websites with "Extended Validation" certificate #934

Adguard for Windows users are familiar with this option already. Extended Validation SSL certificates grant that the owner of the certificate has gone through a very strict process of verification. The trust for such certificate owners is much higher - those are usually banks, other financial organizations etc. Often times there are zero or close to zero ads on their websites, and filtering them is excessive anyway - it only increases the chance to break something useful.

[Changed] VPN autopause is now disabled by default for new Android devices (Pixel, Nexus with Nougat): #1000

From the beginning, the VPN autopause functionality was not "a feature". It is a workaround for some known Android issues and bugs. For example, tethering could not work along with a VPN, or Adguard's network access could be denied in power saving mode.

It seems that all these issues are sorted out in the newest Android devices, so we have disabled autopause functionality for them. You can turn it back ON in Adguard's low-level settings, if needed.

UI

[Added] Bulk change functionality for the Apps Management section #1063

Available from the context menu that we have already mentioned above, it grants a fast and easy access to the most common settings that can be applied to all apps at once.

[Changed] Aggregate all removed apps stats in one item #806

[Changed] "Blocked" pages markup was updated #1029

[Changed] "Notification without icon" mode is made default for "Notification icon" setting #988

[Fixed] Data stats are shown for Adguard app in Apps Management #889

[Improved] `pref.filtered.ports` setting now can understand port ranges #830

Other

[Added] "Watchdog period" advanced setting #1067

Depending on the firmware, Android might be very aggressive to background services, killing them really frequently. In Adguard case this aggressive behavior may be truly destructive. This feature starts a special "watchdog" service, which keeps Adguard's main process alive. However, it is disabled by default as most of the Android devices do not suffer from the "random process killing" issue.

[Added] Hungarian filter #1011

[Added] ABVPN filter #1015

[Changed] 'Update only over WiFi' option is grayed out when automatic filters update is disabled #953

[Fixed] Compatibility issues

[Fixed] 'Filters autoupdate period' greying out bug #956

[Fixed] Premium license expiration notification is shown after the first installation #1062

How to get the beta version

Apk is available here in the Downloads section.

Available in XDA Labs app

Github: https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForAndroid/releases

As always, we are looking for beta testers. Beta testers get access to all premium features in exchange for their feedback. Click

here

to learn more about our beta testing program.