uBlock Origin has a fairly complicated history. The popular ad blocker was once supported on multiple browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and more. However, after Google decided to kill off Manifest V2-based extensions in upstream Chromium, browsers based on the project, like Chrome and Edge, removed support for it too. That said, there are still workarounds to enable it, and some browsers have decided to support it despite Google"s deprecation. Now, in a surprise move, uBlock Origin Lite has landed on the App Store.
uBlock Origin Lite, developed by Raymond Hill, is now available on the Apple App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices leveraging the Safari browser. It is important to note that this content blocker is based on Manifest V3, which means that it is also compliant with the latest changes present in upstream Chromium.
What"s even more fascinating is that uBlock Origin"s website makes no reference to this latest release, but Raymond Hill does mention adding the Safari release to the workflow in GitHub, making this rollout official. The uBlock Origin website still notes that the content blocker is only supported on Safari versions older than 13. Meanwhile, this uBlock Origin Lite version requires iOS and iPadOS 18.0 or later, macOS 15.0 or later, or visionOS 2.0 or later.
uBlock Origin Lite is a free release weighing in at just 5.8MB. The content blocker is very useful primarily for blocking ads through built-in filters, EasyList, EasyPrivacy, and more. Hill has assured users that the blocker is entirely declarative, which means that it consumes no CPU or RAM during the process of blocking unwanted ads. If all of that interests you, you can download uBlock Origin Lite from the App Store here.
As an online publication, Neowin too relies on ads for operating costs and, if you use an ad blocker, we"d appreciate being whitelisted. In addition, we have an ad-free subscription for $28 a year, which is another way to show support!