ad-free is a research project attempting to show flaws in the way how audio advertisement is shown on Android. It is a proof-of-concept of a modularized audio ad blocker written in Kotlin with a modern and simplistic user interface.
- No ROOT required
- Turn off sound when advertisement is playing
- Play arbitrary audio instead of advertisements
- Plugin based design
- Support for Spotify
- Support for Soundcloud (experimental)
- Mute Google Chromecast (experimental)
Download the latest release from the F-Droid store.
This app is free and opensource and does not seek a comercial interest. It does not collect user data. It is a proof-of-concept to show flaws in the way how audio advertisement is often implemented on Android. Ad-free's algorithms are described below and its source code is freely available. It does not alter or "hack" protection measures of music players, and only gathers context information provided by the Android runtime. Nontheless, ad-free may be against terms of services of music players. Muting commercials may not be supported and may result in a temporary ban. Use at your own risk.
See Troubleshooting section for help to get ad-free up and running.
See Changelog for a list of implemented features in new releases.
Advertisement detectors are modularized into implementations of AdDetectable. An instance of AdDetectable can determine if a track being played is advertisement or not.
Ad Free registers an NotificationListenerService and is therefore able to parse all incoming notifications on Android. Notifications are parsed by implementations of AdDetectable:
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TitleDetector:
Detector which parses notifications for certain keywords. In order to avoid false positives, an notification action is provided to unblock wrongly detected advertisements. -
NotificationActionDetector:
Detector which inspects notifications for properties set in the track navigation bar. -
NotificationBundleAndroidTextDetector:
Detector which checks for properties set in the notification bundle.
AudioManager,
Android's Audio System provides several streams on which audio can be
played. Music players play audio on the stream
STREAM_MUSIC.
In case of ad detection, Ad Free mutes STREAM MUSIC and calls
a configured AdPlugin. AdPlugins
aim to replace advertisement. They play music on an alternative stream and are
therefore not affected by the mute of STREAM MUSIC.
As the title of this plugin suggests, it only mutes adertisments without playing sound.
Play music tracks stored on your phone while advertisement is playing. At the moment .mp3, .wav, and .m4a are supported.
Interdimensional Cable replaces advertisements with interdimensional cable advertisements featured in Adult Swim's Rick and Morty TV series.
Due to legal reasons and a rise in popularity, this feature is no longer supported. See here.
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The bird and website icons used in this app are made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com and are licensed by CC 3.0 BY.
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This app is written in Kotlin. Kotlin by Jetbrains is lisenced by the Apache Lisence 2.0
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RxAndroid by the RxAndroid authors is licensed by the Apache License 2.0
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Fuel is made by Kittinun Vantasin and is licensed by MIT
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snakeyaml is licensed by the Apache License 2.0
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XStream by Joe Walnes and the XStream Committers is lisenced by BSD license.
This project is lisenced by the Apache Lisence 2.0
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IT IS A PROOF OF CONCEPT AND INTENDED TO BE A RESEARCH PROJECT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.