App freezes when Native Unified ads are loaded

[Minas Keshishyan]

Hi,

We are trying to load and show 5 native ads in a feed.

As a starting point we used samples from here:

https://github.com/googlecodelabs/admob-native-advanced-feed

The only issue is that onUnifiedNativeAdLoaded callback freezes app for few seconds even on powerful devices. Reducing number of ads to 2 helps, but it's still awfully slow on low end devices.

Please investigate.

private static final int NUMBER_OF_ADS = 5;
private List<UnifiedNativeAd> mNativeAds = new ArrayList<>();

private void loadNativeAds() {
    AdLoader.Builder builder = new AdLoader.Builder(getActivity(), getString(R.string.ad_unit_id));
    AdLoader adLoader = builder.forUnifiedNativeAd(new UnifiedNativeAd.OnUnifiedNativeAdLoadedListener() {
        @Override
        public void onUnifiedNativeAdLoaded(UnifiedNativeAd unifiedNativeAd) {
            mNativeAds.add(unifiedNativeAd);
        }
    }).withAdListener(new AdListener() {
        @Override
        public void onAdFailedToLoad(int errorCode) {
        }
    }).build();


    // Load the Native ads.
    adLoader.loadAds(new AdRequest.Builder().build(), NUMBER_OF_ADS);
}

[mobileadssdk-a...@google.com]

Hi Minas,

Thank you for testing with our sample app. 

We will look into this and get back to you with our findings. In the meantime, could you provide to us the information of the devices you have tested on where app freeze is reproducible?

Regards,

Ivan Bautista

Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Minas Keshishyan]

Hi Ivan,

Thanks for quick response.

Basically it's not device specific and it's reproducible on any device. I tested on Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S5, Galaxy S2, LeEco Le 1S, Fire 10 tablet, ...

But it's more noticeable on "slow" devices ( eg Galaxy S2 and S5 or any other low end device ).

You can experiment with the value of NUMBER_OF_ADS, when it's 1, it's bearable on most of the devices, but when it's 5 and it's getting 5 onUnifiedNativeAdLoaded callbacks, it's awfully slow on all the devices I tested. Basically app freezes from few seconds up to 10 seconds.

[Minas Keshishyan]

Another somewhat related issue is that when I call `adLoader.isLoading()` inside onUnifiedNativeAdLoaded, sometimes it's returning false when it's actually still loading ads.

Eg when I load 5 ads, sometimes it's false only when all 5 ads are loaded and sometimes it's also false when it still loaded 1, 2, 3 or 4 ads. 

On Thursday, November 22, 2018 at 2:32:34 PM UTC+4, mobileadssdk-a...@google.com wrote:

[mobileadssdk-a...@google.com]

Hi Minas,

Thank you for getting back to us with more details.

That said, I noticed some minor lags when Native Ads are loading upon testing with our sample app and I encountered the isLoading() returning false even if there are still succeeding ads being loaded. That said, I will check this with the rest of the team and I'll keep you posted for any feedback. 

Regards,

Ivan Bautista

Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Minas Keshishyan]

Hi Ivan,

That's great, thanks a lot!

I just fully migrated our apps from Facebook's Audience Network to AdMob's Native Unified ads.

Here are my findings:

- App is freezing for up to 10 seconds on low end devices when it's loading 5 ads. ( for now I load 3 ads to mitigate the issue )

- When rendering ad in populateUnifiedNativeAdView method, `adView.setNativeAd(nativeAd);` causes jerky RecyclerView scrolling even after I disabled video ads and reimplemented native ad layout with ConstraintLayout. With Facebook ads it's buttery smooth.

- It's getting the same 3 ads over and over again even if when I set 5 it's getting 5 unique ads.

- Sometimes ad contains mixed languages ( eg. headline is in Russian, body is in Arabic )

I'm going to push one of our apps to production to check how it performs. I will come back with more feedback later!

Regards,

Minas

[Adam Bittlingmayer]

+1, thanks for looking into this.

[mobileadssdk-a...@google.com]

Hello, 

Thank you for getting back to us with more details.

That said, I noticed some minor lags when Native Ads are loading upon testing with our sample app and I encountered the isLoading() returning false even if there are still succeeding ads being loaded. That said, I will check this with the rest of the team and I'll keep you posted for any feedback. 

Regards,

Bharani Cherukuri

Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Adam Bittlingmayer]

Seriously, copypasta from the same thread?  You know GMail just collapses that, right?

[mobileadssdk-a...@google.com]

Hi Adam,

I have already raised this to the team and we are looking into this. 

Rest assured that I will get back to you in this thread once we have a more conclusive findings.

Regards,

Ivan Bautista

Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Minas Keshishyan]

No, we are forced to load less ads to mitigate the issue, but it still freezes, just not so drastic as with 5 ads.

Any progress?

On Friday, January 4, 2019 at 9:52:41 AM UTC+4, Prajwal Manandhar wrote:

Did anyone managed to solve this issue?? 

[mobileadssdk-a...@google.com]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your patience and for following up.

I will recheck this with the team and get back to you for any feedback.

Regards,

Ivan Bautista

Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Minas Keshishyan]

Hi Ivan,

Any news about this one?

Our app is freezing a lot. In Play Console's Android vitals overview  ANR rate was "Better than 96%", now it says: "Better than 23%".

App uninstall rate also increased drastically during last 2 months after we introduced Native Unified ads.

Should we ditch native ads for now or there are some improvements in work comming soon?

Regards,

Minas

[mobileadssdk-a...@google.com]

Hi Minas,

I understand your concern and I sent another followup to the team. I will get back to you once we get more conclusive findings.

On the other hand, if it's possible on your end, could you test if using Banner Ads for now will help improve your app performance? Here is a sample implementation for your reference.

Regards,

Ivan Bautista

Mobile Ads SDK Team

On 01/14/19 23:58:35 min...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Ivan,

Any news about this one?

Our app is freezing a lot. In Play Console's Android vitals overview  ANR rate was "Better than 96%", now it says: "Better than 23%".

App uninstall rate also increased drastically during last 2 months after we introduced Native Advanced ads.

Should we ditch native ads for now or there is some improvements in work comming soon?

Regards,

Minas

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[Minas Keshishyan]

Hi Ivan,

Thanks for the tip. Sadly banners don't fit our app experience, but banners certainly have less performance impact. 

[AYODEJI Dare]

Hi,

Has anyone been able to solve this freeze?

[AYODEJI Dare]

Hi Minas,

Where you able to resolve this? Cause I tried with 3 Ads it still freezes for a couple of sec even after running it in another thread.

On Thursday, November 22, 2018 at 9:10:59 AM UTC+1, Minas Keshishyan wrote:

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hello there,

Thanks for reaching out to us. Are you seeing the same issue as described on this thread regarding lags when loading multiple native ads on a feed (RecyclerView list)? Could you please share a sample app (with your implementation) for us to take a look on our end as well? Please make sure to be on the latest version of the SDK and also share the steps to reproduce the issue. You can use "Reply Privately to Author" option to share the details privately. 

Regards,
Deepika Uragayala
Mobile Ads SDK Team
 

ref:_00D1U1174p._5001UJaP15:ref

[Minas Keshishyan]

Hi,

No, sadly it's not possible to fix on our side. SDK is flawed, it has major performance issues and should be fixed on Google's end.

I tried to report the issue again after a year of no action here

Still no any resolution after 2 weeks. I tried to increase number of ads from 4 to 5 on production and ANRs went up drastically, revenue was down by 30%.

It seems like Google doesn't realize that it hurts their business too. I'm already experimenting with other ad networks to replace AdMob. AdMob Native ads have too many issues right now. I found more than a dozen of serious bugs of the SDK, but I'm lazy to report them, because anyway they ignore our feedback I guess.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hello Minas,

We have already shared the issue with our team and we are investigating it. We will keep you posted via that thread when we have any update from the team.

[Minas Keshishyan]

Hi Deepika,

Great, Thanks!

I really hope that the team will not ingore the issue this time, as it's a critical blocker for using native ads in any app.

I already tested few other ad network SDKs and non of them had such an issue.

I will be really happy if I will be able to keep using AdMob, otherwise good enough alternatives are available. I waited for a year and I'm not going to wait for another year.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Minas,

Sure. We will make sure that we pass the feedback to our team and we will keep you posted when we have an update from our team.

[baderkhane oussama]

I am facing the same issue, is there any solution yet ?
A solution that could work for me so far is to delay loadAds so i avoid UI blocking 

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi there,

 

Thank you for reaching out to us.

 

Please note that this issue is currently under investigation. We would really appreciate if you could also share with us the details below via Reply privately to author option in order to further investigate.

 

• Copy of a sample project where the issue is reproducible
• Steps replicating the issue
• Mobile Ads SDK version
• Specific device/s and their Android version

 

Regards,

Mark Albios

Mobile Ads SDK Team

ref:_00D1U1174p._5001UXWkbG:ref

[baderkhane oussama]

Hey Minas,
please take a look at this http://www.djcxy.com/p/39966.html, may be the solution for your case

[Minas Keshishyan]

Hi baderkhane,
Thanks for sharing, but it's not a solution as the whole UI is freezed when I load 5 ads at once, it's not just recyclerview.

The problem exists from the beginning when native advanced ads where available. It's less noticeable only on powerful high end devices, but majority of my users use mid to low end devices, so they are affected badly. It's amazing that it's still not fixed for so long time.

[Sinh Phan]

This issue do not facing when binding the ad into view. Just loading ad process.

Vào 21:37:34 UTC+7 Thứ Năm, ngày 26 tháng 3 năm 2020, baderkhane oussama đã viết:

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi all,

Please be informed that this is still under investigation. Rest assured that the team is actively working on this. I'll post an update the soonest we have our findings.

Regards,
Teejay Pimentel

Mobile Ads SDK Team

ref:_00D1U1174p._5001UaSwip:ref

[Sinh Phan]

Hi,
Waiting for long time... :((

Regards,
Thank Teejay Pimentel!

Vào 17:48:09 UTC+7 Thứ Năm, ngày 30 tháng 4 năm 2020, mobileadssdkforumadvisor đã viết:

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi,

I work with TeeJay. We know that integrating Native Ads into a feed without freezes is important to you. We are looking in to this issue and we'll report back to you as soon as we have more information.

Regards,
Aryeh Baker

[Wojtek]

Hi,

Facing the same issue, loading 5 native ads into recycler view is blocking main UI thread for seconds!!! When loading 1 ad its much better but useless in that case scenario.

Tested all implementations including official Google github samples.

It's clear that its SDK issue as it should not matter how many ads you load and it should never be done on UI thread, its basic Android guideline not to operate demanding  or network operations on UI thread. How did it pass testing phase at Google??? 

Some apps with loading splash screen might get away with it (Wallapop app for example) by waiting to show UI until ads are loaded but its only masking the problem. 

Basically current implementation of Native ads to be placed in scrolling feed is UNUSABLE as it will trigger High ANR rate (which people mentioned before), will affect user experience and possibly app ranking (as google is using ratings and app vitals like crash rate and ANR rate to recognize bad behaviour app) 

Its is frustrating to see this issue was raised a YEAR ago and still not solution! Forced now to implement FAN SDK for native ads solution which is buttery smooth - shame on Google!

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi there,

Thank you for your message and we really do understand your frustration regarding this issue. Allow me to follow up this with the team. Rest assured, we will get back to you once we have an update.


Regards,

Sherwin Diesta Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Wojtek]

UPDATE:

Good news: The lag is less noticeable in Release Build. It is worse when testing the app in Debug Build without obfuscation (not sure if obfuscation plays any role, could be that internal Admob Sdk is detecting app built in debug and trying to output some logs etc. internally causing extra lagging). For new, high end devices you may get away with ANR rate not spiking that much.

Bad news: The impact on main UI thread is still there and quite noticeable. It gets worse for low end devices - Samsung S20+ lag is visible for less than a second, but for Samsung Galaxy S8 its bit more than 1 second (this is still quite powerful device). I expect low end devices will get UI blocked for more than 2-3 seconds.

Takeaway: Might be worth updating Native Ads implementation guide with warning that Debug build might experience longer loading times. Or FIX the Sdk

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi there,

Thanks for adding insights regarding your query. Let me share this to my teammates to check further. We will let you know the soonest we have the information.

Regards,

Sherwin Diesta Mobile Ads SDK Team

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