Ask HN: How do people browse reasonable on Android phones?

2 points by cpncrunch ↗ HN
As in: what is your solution for browsing news on android and having a reasonable experience. The user experience just seems to be getting worse, and is close to unusable these days, with most sites (other than HN) filling more than half of the screen with videos or adverts, and usually if you click the tiny x without hitting an advert, another usually pops up again as soon as you scroll. A lot of sites also have tiny fonts, which are difficult to read in low light conditions (at night in bed) without lots of zooming (which some sites prevent).

Here are the solutions I've tried:

[1] Safari. Works really well on iOS, and I want it on Android, but isn't available.

[2] Opera claims to have reader mode, but when I tried it it just seems to add its own adverts, along with a "click here to read more" link on all pages. So ultimately it just removes everyone else's adverts and adds their own even worse ads. I get they have to make money, but the whole thing is unusable.

[3] Android Reading Mode. Now, this would be an excellent solution if it actually worked and was thought through, but no, it's a disaster. So you install the "reading mode" app, then turn it on in settings. Now you have a choice: either enable the permanent little annoying bubble that appears all the time, even when reading mode can't be used. Or, choose to click both volume buttons at the same time. The problem with this is that it beeps every time you do that, and the beep cannot be disabled unless you turn "ring & notification volume" to zero. The beep can't be disabled by using "do not disturb", and the "reading mode" app claims it is not using notifications, so there is no way to disable it there. Overall I think google must just have tried to make Reading Mode as annoying as possible so that they can say "hey, we have accessibility", but it's just so annoying that nobody will ever use it.

I haven't found any other solutions to the problem yet.

13 comments

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Firefox + the uBlock Origin extension.
Sorry, that likely won't work (see my other comments and updated question).
Firefox on android with "ublock origin" works really nicely.
Just to clarify my original comment: part of the reason I want to use reader mode is to make fonts of all pages a standard size, so I can read at night in low light, so I need more than just an ad blocker.
Firefox's reader mode works quite well.
You could use a kindle for that.
I could use an ipad for it, which I already own. The point is I want to use my android phone, and there is no good reason why I shouldn't be able (other than google doesn't let me, which isn't a good reason!)
Need it be said a third time? Firefox with uBlock Origin is the only way to go. You can even install them both on your PC or Mac and block all the ads there.

You may also like SponsorBlock (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/), though it is not currently available on Android. It lets you skip over advertising inside of videos.

What about font resizing to address tiny fonts? That's also a requirement. (Sorry I forgot to mention this in my original post, but I've updated it now). So really I need a reader mode, rather than simply an ad blocker.
Yes, you can customize the default text size. In Firefox desktop you can also set a hard minimum on the font size, guaranteeing that nothing will be smaller than that. I'm not sure how the simpler setting in Firefox for Android handle that.
You can use ReVanced and patch YouTube for Sponsorblock, I haven't seen an ad or sponsor in years since I use ReVanced (or Vanced before they got cease and desisted) and uBlock Origin + Sponsorblock on PC
Firefox reader mode works. Just tap the icon in the address bar to toggle it on and off for any page.

When in reader mode tap the menu icon and select the option to adjust reader mode settings to change font.

Yes, this is the answer. I didnt notice it before because the reader option doesnt appear for all websites. It seems to work well.