Techlore interviews: Andrey Meshkov breaks down Apple’s new system-wide filtering API

Back in October 2025 we hosted Ad-Filtering Dev Summit, an annual meetup where developers, browser vendors, and privacy experts come together to discuss the latest technologies and challenges in ad blocking and web privacy. This time, we were excited to also welcome Techlore, an independent privacy-focused media project best known for its YouTube channel and community work, as our guests (and speakers!). While at the conference, Henry Fisher, owner of Techlore and digital rights advocate, caught up with members of the AdGuard team for a short on-the-spot interview.

Andrey Meshkov, AdGuard’s founder and CTO, shared insights into system-wide ad filtering on Apple platforms, while Sofia Orlova, UX writer at AdGuard, talked about our approach to UX and how we design with different user demographics in mind.

Watch the full video interview below or scroll down for a text version of the conversation.

Andrey Meshkov (AdGuard): Hi, my name is Andrey and I’m a CTO and co-founder of AdGuard. And, well, I do ad blocking for half of my life.

Henry Fisher (Techlore): The big thing that’s been released is Apple’s new API, which allows you to do some filtering now, not just within apps. How is that different from what you’re doing right now?

Andrey: This is quite different. Right now [on iOS] we’re doing it in Safari only, and with the new API, we will be able to do that system-wide. It means that we could stop tracking in every app that you use, which is quite exciting, actually. We can do that on other platforms, and I’m glad to see that this feature comes to iOS. What I’m also very excited to see is that Apple provides a specialized API for that. While in other platforms it's always like a special technique that is not supposed to be used this way or has a wider application, Apple targets system-wide filtering [specifically]. And it’s good, it’s nice to see that there’s an operating system vendor that thinks about that.

Henry: So right now, if I set up AdGuard on my phone, I either use the DNS or the VPN method. All of the filtering occures only in Safari, but not in apps yet?

Andrey: Not like that, you’re right that if you install AdGuard and start using the DNS protection feature you will also get the system-wide filtering, but the difference is that we don’t see full URLs which limits our abilities. For instance, Facebook uses the same domain for tracking and for serving legitimate content so we can’t block it because it will break Facebook apps. And Apple’s new API allows to filter full URLs so we can deal with that. What’s good about that is its privacy-driven design so that we don’t actually know what URLs you are visiting. But they are getting blocked nevertheless.

Henry: That’s super cool. Is this already live or is it coming soon?

Andrey: So the API is very, very new. Apple is basically fixing some minor issues right now. There were a few patches that made some fixes in it. But we hope that this feature will come to AdGuard in two or three months. Depends on Apple and their review process though.

Henry: Got it. Do you know how it’s going to be advertised and what it’s going to be called? Or is it going to be the same feature you already have but it’s more of a behind the scenes update?

Andrey: This will definitely be a separate feature. And we have not yet decided on what to call it. It might be system-wide protection. This is a current working name for it. Unfortunately, it will only be available to users who pay for it, so not to free users. And the reason for that is that the API requires a lot of resources from our side. So we simply cannot afford to have it available to everyone. It will be too expensive for us. But other than that, yeah, that’s the working name. [It will take] two to three months, probably. Hopefully.

Henry: Is this also applying to macOS or is it iOS only?

Andrey: It will come to macOS as well. The difference is that on macOS we have two different apps. One is premium which does system-wide filtering already, so, it doesn’t really need it. But it uses a different approach to system-wide filtering. And the other one is free and it currently works in Safari only. It will get system-wide filtering as well as an additional feature.

Henry then briefly spoke with Sofia Orlova, a UX writer at AdGuard, about how the company approaches UX writing and interface design for different demographics, making highly technical products easier to understand for everyone.

At AdGuard, Sofia works across a wide range of privacy-related products — including an ad blocker, VPN, DNS, email, and a crypto wallet. With hands-on experience designing and writing for multiple privacy tools, Sofia focuses on making complex security concepts clear, accessible, and user-friendly.

Henry (Techlore): You talked a lot about the target demographic today of AdGuard. What would you say is kind of your overall largest demographic and why do they use something like AdGuard?

Sofia (AdGuard): It depends on the exact product that we are talking about. The products that have the widest audience are the AdGuard Ad Blocker apps for Android and Windows. They have a really large demographic, from grannies to techies, really. There are a lot of people who install the app for their children or for their parents. And there are a lot of people who want some fine tuning, specifically technical fine tuning. It really does depend on the product. When we talk about a crypto wallet or even a VPN, the audience is often more privacy-focused with a more technical background, so we do not have to oversimplify things for them.

Henry: Why do you see such an uptick on the Android side of things? And why do you see people choosing AdGuard over other ad blockers? What really separates you guys?

Sofia: From the technical perspective, AdGuard provides system-wide ad blocking, so it helps to protect the user both in browsers and in apps. This is probably the most important thing to mention. But from our perspective as designers and UX writers, I hope that it is also about the design, the user experience. I hope users like AdGuard also for the [clear and intuitive] user flows.

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