App Open - Message on LogCat

[Diego]

Hi

I implemented the AppOpen ad no meu App, and I received the following message in logCat. At some times when I put the application in backGround the Ad fails and the message below is displayed, at other times the ad is displayed and the message is not displayed.

W/Ads: Interstitials that show when your app is in the background are a violation of AdMob policies and may lead to blocked ad serving. To learn more, visit https://googlemobileadssdk.page.link/admob-interstitial-policies

So I decided to check the sample code available in this(https://github.com/googleads/googleads-mobile-android-examples) repository and the same message is being presented in LogCat.

2022-03-14 16:10:45.525 7812-7812/com.google.android.gms.example.appopenexample W/Ads: Interstitials that show when your app is in the background are a violation of AdMob policies and may lead to blocked ad serving. To learn more, visit https://googlemobileadssdk.page.link/admob-interstitial-policies

The message suggests that I are doing something wrong and I am not confident to update my app with this implementation. Could you give me an answer?

[Diego]

More details.

1 - My App has no interstitials. 2 - The repository(https://github.com/googleads/googleads-mobile-android-examples/tree/master/kotlin/admob/AppOpenExample) contains the same implementation as App Open and the message is also displayed. 3 - To test, just put the app in the background and then in the foreground so that the message is displayed. 4 - The problem is intermittent, sometimes the Ad is displayed and the logcat message is not displayed. 5 - The SDK version tested was 20.6.0

 As I said, I am not confident to update my app with this implementation. Could you give me an answer?  

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Diego,

Thank you for your response.

Upon checking our sample app using the version 20.6.0, I wasn't able to replicate the log message you've encountered. I've tested it multiple times, but I am still unable to replicate it. Can you provide us the steps you made to replicate it?

Regards,

Princess Pamela Mobile Ads SDK Team

ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2YlePZ:ref

[Diego]

Hi

Thank you for your response.  

I did new tests and couldn't reproduce it in the emulator. But, I tested it on two physical devices and replicated on both. Here are some test data. Android Studio Bumblebee | 2021.1.1 Patch 2 Build #AI-211.7628.21.2111.8193401, built on February 17, 2022 Runtime version: 11.0.11+9-b60-7590822 amd64 VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by Oracle Corporation Windows 10 10.0 GC: G1 Young Generation, G1 Old Generation Memory: 4096M colors: 8 Registry: external.system.auto.import.disabled=true, ide.instant.shutdown=false Non-Bundled Plugins: com.intellij.marketplace (211.7628.36), Dart (211.7808), com.thoughtworks.gauge (211.6693.111), org.jetbrains.kotlin (211-1.6.10-release-923-AS7442. 40), io.flutter (65.2.2), org.intellij.plugins.markdown (211.7142.37) Device tested   1 Samsung Galaxy S21 5G - SMG991B Android version 12 - Last update 01/Jan/2022. Device tested   2 Samsung Galaxy S9 - SM-G950 Android 10 version

I added some prints with the log and also with a step.  

Regards,

Diego

[Diego]

A detail I forgot to mention, after putting the app in the background you can put the app in the foreground quickly, you don't have to wait to reproduce the message.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Diego,

Thank you for your response.

I would like confirm first when the ad is loaded and showed, are you then placing the app in the background? If yes, then, this is disallowed behavior of interstitial as per this article. If you want to put your app in the background, you need to close the ad first before doing it.

[Diego]

Hi Pamela, Thanks for the answer. I'm not putting the interstitial in the background.

In this specific example the Ad is loaded by App Open, then the app is placed in the background and then, for the ad to be displayed, the App is placed in the foreground.

This is expected behavior for the presentation of Open Ad on Hot startup. There are no interstitials in this example.

[Diego]

Hi Pamela,

I've done two more tests now with other examples available in the repository. https://github.com/googleads/googleads-mobile-android-examples/tree/master/kotlin/admob/BannerExample and https://github.com/googleads/googleads-mobile-android-examples/tree/master/java/admob/InterstitialExample To see if the message would also be displayed in these examples, I did the same steps, but the message was not displayed in logcat.

So I don't think it's a problem with the phones.

Any questions or if you need more tests let me know.

Regards,

Diego

[jeremy....@gmail.com]

Hi,

I have the exact same issue on my Samsung test devices Galaxy A12.
Something I don't have on emulators nor on my Pixel 6.
So regarding Diego message the issue could be linked to Samsung devices generally. Maybe there are handling lifecycle / activity events differently.
For testing I've tried showing the ad on onActivityPreResumed and onActivityPostResumed.
With onActivityPreResumed there is same issue, sometimes the ad is shown without any warning, sometimes there is the warning and no ad is displayed.
With onActivityPostResumed, the ad is always shown (please note that it is not a solution or a workaround as it goes against the policy: user may start interacting with the app before the ad display).
It may confirm the issue with lifecycle management on Samsung devices.

If this issue affects all Samsung devices it is a huge one.
Best,

Jérémy

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Jeremy,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

For clarification, what is the version of SDK you are using? Upon reviewing the information provided by the previous user and by you, this is only a warning from the logs and shouldn't have any effect on your ad serving as this only appears on that specific model. We also have not received any widespread reports regarding this warning message from other devices. However, if you have any further concerns, feel free to share with us.
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2YlePZ:ref"

Thanks,
 

Mobile Ads SDK Team