Filtering breaks apps - better App Whitelist UI, please

[Purple Tentacle]

Especially https filtering breaks quite a few apps, way more than whitelisted by default and that will probably always be the case.

Examples I found after a single day of usage:

Google Play Newsstand - downloading purchased magazines is impossible with https filtering active.
Golfshot Plus: Golf GPS (current app of the week in some countries) - app simply crashes upon launch with Adguard active

The current whitelist features is awful. How on earth do I even discover the package name of an app on mobile, as far as I know there is no native way to do so on Android. And why do I have to?

Why can't I just pick from a list of the currently installed apps instead of having to enter hard to discover strings into a text file?

Just give us a list of our installed apps and let us check filtering on/off (on Android 5 and higher) and https filtering on/off.

 

[Purple Tentacle]

Mhhh, what I'm looking for appears to be hidden under "Firewall -> Apps and Statistics".

Why is that hidden away so well? Does toggling ad blocking here do anything even if the firewall feature is disabled? Why can't I toggle https-blocking here? Why are there two separate, manual app whitelists hidden in other places in this app?

So you basically already have a fully functional UI for app black and whitelisting, but it's hard to discover and completely underused. Would be nice if you could focus on that in in of the upcoming releases.

 

[vasily_bagirov]

So you basically already have a fully functional UI for app black and whitelisting, but it's hard to discover and completely underused. Would be nice if you could focus on that in in of the upcoming releases.

Hello! There are a couple of topics I'd like to cover in response to your message.

1) pref.net.exclusions and Firewall whitelisting are not exactly the same. pref.net.exclusions work on a deeper level.

2) We plan to completely redesign Adguard in v.3.0, and moving Firewall to a separate, more easily accessible section will be a part of it.

3) Toggling app filtering in Firewall compeltely disables any filtering for this app, including HTTPS filtering.

 

[avatar]

@Purple Tentacle these compatibility issues you've mentioned, do you have it with https filtering only?

 

[Purple Tentacle]

@Purple Tentacle these compatibility issues you've mentioned, do you have it with https filtering only?

No idea, since editing the whitelists is so tedious I didn't really test this much. Also, once the paid content on Newsstand is acquired it works with and without Adguard, only the initial download appears to fail. The subscription that was affected by this has just expired for me.

1) pref.net.exclusions and Firewall whitelisting are not exactly the same. pref.net.exclusions work on a deeper level.

I know. That's my point. Why do you have a perfectly functional UI for Firewall whitelisting and a hacky text file for proper, full whitelisitng (pref.net.exclusions) and https whitelisting. You already have the UI for this (in form of the Firewall whitelist), why not use it for https whitelisting and pref.net.exclusions? Why not combine this all into one UI?

2) We plan to completely redesign Adguard in v.3.0, and moving Firewall to a separate, more easily accessible section will be a part of it.

I'm glad to hear that a redesign is planned. But I don't care much about the Firewall feature (that's why I initially didn't even discover the app stats and whitelist UI there), I was merely requesting a proper UI to manage app exclusions. You already have it in one part of the app, but inexplicably aren't using it for the other two app whitelists scattered throughout the app now. Heck, the fact that you essentially have three different app-based whitelists that all work slightly different (Firewall, https-exclusions and pref.net.exclusions) in completely different parts of the app with completely different UIs is insanity to begin with.

3) Toggling app filtering in Firewall compeltely disables any filtering for this app, including HTTPS filtering.

Good to know, I'd still prefer a proper UI for pref.net.exclusions, though - no point in funneling traffic through the app that's not needed to be filtered. Heck, I'd actually much prefer a blacklist approach that lets me select the apps I do want filtered by Adguard.

 

[vasily_bagirov]

I know. That's my point. Why do you have a perfectly functional UI for Firewall whitelisting and a hacky text file for proper, full whitelisitng (pref.net.exclusions) and https whitelisting. You already have the UI for this (in form of the Firewall whitelist), why not use it for https whitelisting and pref.net.exclusions? Why not combine this all into one UI?

For this very reason. Since these are all different (even if only slightly different) options. For everyday purposes Firewall whitelisting is enough, but sometimes we need the user to use pref.net.exclusions (usually as a response to some troubles). HTTPS whitelist is a thing in itself. Having that said, we definitely need to change the design. In v.3.0 we will come up with something more efficient and less confusing.

I'm glad to hear that a redesign is planned. But I don't care much about the Firewall feature (that's why I initially didn't even discover the app stats and whitelist UI there), I was merely requesting a proper UI to manage app exclusions.

As I already said in 1), the redesign will be much more than that. But I also have to emphasize that Firewall is only a part (although a very important one) of Adguard app. We got to give other sections, like Ad Blocker, some love too, and can't just make Fireall a single build-around in our design.

Good to know, I'd still prefer a proper UI for pref.net.exclusions, though - no point in funneling traffic through the app that's not needed to be filtered. Heck, I'd actually much prefer a blacklist approach that lets me select the apps I do want filtered by Adguard.

We can't say yet what the final solution in v.3.0 will be. It is possible there will be a 'big switch' for whitelist mode/blacklist mode.