AdGuard for iOS v4.5.12: A smoother Safari experience

Our goal has always been a clean Internet where your privacy remains untouchable. With this update, AdGuard for iOS takes another step toward that beautiful world we strive for.

The highlight of this release is the upgraded SafariConverterLib. Let’s take a closer look at what it brings to the new version of AdGuard for iOS.

Safari rules load up to 5x faster

We’ve improved the way rules are converted in Safari, resolving a long-standing issue we hadn’t even noticed before. As our CTO explains, it took us some time to catch, but now rules load to Safari the way they always should have.

In short, we’ve refined how special characters in AdGuard rules are converted into regular expressions. Thanks to this, rule loading is now up to 5 times faster, the content blocker file is smaller, and advanced rules perform better.

For more technical details on how this improvement could have saved an estimated 50 million hours over the past decade, check out the following article.

Improved support for advanced rules

Starting with v4.5.12, AdGuard for iOS now uses a new approach for applying advanced rules. This improvement allows us to apply the rules that didn’t work in Safari before, making filtering more accurate and efficient.

Other fixes

Some advanced rules didn’t apply to certain websites in Safari, even though they worked fine in other AdGuard products. This issue is now resolved, improving both filtering stability and performance. We’ve also fixed other minor bugs and introduced various enhancements for a smoother overall experience.

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