HTML5 IMA SDK on Android Chrome version 53, autoplay muted issue

[Marko Ristic]

Hi,

We are testing the new autoplay muted video capabilities of the latest Chrome browser on Android. 
And HTML5 IMA SDK throws this error:
Failed to initialize ad playback element before starting ad playback. Error code: 400

I guess this is because the adDisplayContainer was not initialized on user interaction?
On iOS 10 safari browser it is working without issues, except skippable ads which are not supported on iPhone.

Is there any plan to introduce the support for these relaxed video restrictions inside newer browsers? 

Thank you,
Marko.

[Vu Chau (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Marko,

Thanks for bringing that up.  I'll get back to the rest of the team to see what we can do!

In the meantime, do you have a static page where you see that error?

Vu Chau

IMA SDK Team

[Arnaud Leyder]

Hi IMA Team,

I am following up on this issue because I have a use case where I need to support muted autoplay of video ads on Chrome for Android with IMA HTML5 SDK.

The need here is for the video tag playing the ad to have both the autoplay and muted attributes so that it can autoplay while muted. 

On iOS this works great because I am setting autoplay and muted on the main player HTML5 video tag and as on iOS the IMA takes over the src of this video tag it does support muted autoplay of the ad.

On Android a different video tag is appended when the IMA SDK init and this new video tag is not equipped with the muted or autoplay properties which causes the ad to not autoplay. I have tried a couple of options to pass those settings to the IMA-provided video tag but to no avail. 

Do you have an update on how can this be achieved on Chrome for Android?

Thanks

Arnaud

[Vu Chau (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Arnaud,

The team is currently investigating support for muted autoplay for ads in Android Chrome 53.  We will reach out when the support is announced! Meanwhile, if you have a tag you are using, feel free to send it across.

Vu Chau

IMA SDK Team

[Maurizio Sambati]

Are there updates on this? Do muted autoplay ads for Chrome 53 actually work on IMA?

Maurizio

[Vu Chau (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Maurizio,

No update as of yet. The team is tracking this feature request, so when I have an update, we will reach out.

Thanks!

Vu Chau

IMA SDK Team

[Josh Hubi]

Vu,

Thank you so very much for the update. Is this the proper channel to be following the progress of this upcoming feature? If not, can you lead me to where I can keep track of the process?

Lastly, is there a rough timeline on when you might think this feature might roll out?

Again, thank you so much for everything!
Josh. 

[Chris Feldman (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Josh,

You're in the right place!  We're not able to provide a timeline for the update, but I'll make sure I update this thread as soon as any changes are made. You can also follow our release history page for more information about the changes made in each update.

Regards,

Chris Feldman

IMA SDK Team

[Vincent van Laar]

Hi Chris,

I'm also interested in something related.

Now on iOS we sometimes (seems very random) get the adsManager customPlaybackUsed = false which means google IMA uses its own video element which is then not muted and setVolume(0) on iOS does not work.

If you could implement a setMuted method like you have the setVolume OR also set the muted attribute of the video element when adsManager.setVolume(0) is called that would be great!

Thanks,

Vincent

[Chris Feldman (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Vincent,

This is a by-product of restrictions on iOS. Because iOS does not allow for volume to be set programmatically, your setVolume call will have no effect. This is detailed on our FAQ page for iOS.

Regards,

Chris Feldman
IMA SDK Team

[Vincent van Laar]

Hi Chris,

I think i didn't make myself clear.

Since iOS 10 muting/unmuting the videoelement does work (setting the volume still does not work). And when a video element is muted, it is allowed to autoplay as well, which is interesting since it removes some of the issues with the user needing to interact with the player to start media.

So my suggestion is either adding a setMuted method, or actually setting the muted state of the video to true when calling setVolume(0).

Hope this makes sense :)

Kind regards,

Vincent

[Chris Feldman (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Vincent,

For iOS, you also have the option of using the <video muted> HTML5 element. 

Thank you for your suggestions, I'll make a note of them to the team.

Regards,

Chris Feldman
IMA SDK Team

[Marko Ristic]

Hi Chris,

We are now seeing autoplay muted problems on iOS Safari with Google IMA. This was working without problems until recently. iOS Chrome seems to be working fine for now.

Regards,
Marko

[Arnaud Leyder]

Hi Marko,

We are seeing the same issue on iOS. It used to work until recently.
I stumbled upon an issue which I have described here: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/ima-sdk/GCIRdFrmK68/wyQT52RZEAAJ. It seems that when used the playsinline attribute causes iOS to not use custom playback which in turn causes the muted attribute to be ignored. Can you confirm you are using the playsinline attribute in your configuration?

Thanks
Arnaud

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[Marko Ristic]

Hi Arnaud, 

I can confirm that we are using playsinline attribute. And of course we are using it since we would like in-page media playback on iPhone devices (not iOS native video player).

Regards,
Marko

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Marko Ristic

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[Chris Feldman (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Marko, Arnaud,

I'm not able to reproduce the issue that you're describing with iOS 10 not using custom playback with the playsinline video element. I've created a sample here. Can you test with that page and let me know what you see? When I run it with the tag, I get custom playback.

If you would like to discuss further, please open a new thread for us to continue to this discussion. People are following this thread for another topic.

Regards,

Chris Feldman

IMA SDK Team

[Marko Ristic]

Hi Chris,

Can you set up a demo with autoplay muted.

The issue, from my point of view at least, is not that Google IMA is using it's own video element, but that the video element is not setup for autoplay muted on mobile browser environments. The main blocking issue is the muted part. Maybe the SDK can check the attributes of the custom video playback element, if one has been passed, and use those settings. Or simply use the custom video playback element.

Regards,
Marko.

[Chris Feldman (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Marko,

I've fixed my sample and it's now exhibiting the same behavior that you've described. We've had a few others report the same issue and our team is investigating. I will let you know as soon as I have any updates. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

If you continue to have issues, or have other issues in the future, please open a new thread.

Regards,

Chris Feldman

IMA SDK Team

[Chris Feldman (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi All,

We've submitted a fix for the Android Chrome autoplay issue that should go live with the next SDK release. You can monitor our release history page for more information. Let me know if there are any further questions.

Regards,

Chris Feldman

IMA SDK Team

[Arnaud Leyder]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the update. Has the fix landed with IMA HTML5 3.163.0 which was released on 3/23/2017? Or should we wait for another release?

Arnaud

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[Chris Feldman (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Arnaud,

Thank you for following up. This was not a part of the 3/23 release. We expect this to go out in the coming days or weeks. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Regards,
Chris Feldman

IMA SDK Team

[Michael Arguin]

Chris,

IMA SDK v3.164.0 appears to be in production but there is no mention of it in the release notes. Might this version have the playsinline muted fix for iOS and Android?  I ask because it appears to change the behavior of my test cases in a positive manner so I just want to confirm.

Thanks.

-Mike

[Arnaud Leyder]

The release note is out now:

3.164.0    3/29/2017   
Fixes auto-play support for mobile Safari. To enable, mute your video player or call AdsManager.setVolume(0) before calling AdsManager.start().

Is the fix for mobile Safari only or should this work for Chrome on Android as well?

Thanks
Arnaud

-Mike

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[Chris Feldman (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Michael, Arnaud

You're both correct that SDK v3.164.0 is now in production. This change is now reflected in our release notes. Despite the fact that the release notes only mention iOS, this update should also effect Android.

Let me know if you have any issues or questions.

Regards,

Chris Feldman

IMA SDK Team

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[Marko Ristic]

Hi Chris, 

From our preliminary tests, I can confirm that this is working now for both iOS Safari and Android Chrome.

Thank you!

Best regards,
Marko Ristic.