How would you work with Admob on devices that don't have Google Play Services?

[Liran Barsisa]

Now that Google/Admob have deprecated the old SDK for using Admob in a stand alone manner, what should I do in case I want to publish my app with the ads on other places? Even an APK ?

Is it now impossible to use Admob for devices that don't have Google Play Services?

Also, speaking of Google Play Services, does anyone know where I can find other Google groups regarding them and other Android-related groups? 

[Liran Barsisa]

BTW, another reason for this is trying out the SDKs on the emulator, which was possible before, and now it's not.

[Amy Quispe (AdMob SDK Team)]

Hi Liran,

It is possible to use AdMob for devices that don't have Google Play Services. These devices won't get the automatic updates for Google Play Services, but will instead use the existing GPS package that is bundled with the app.

Here's a link to the Android Developers forum. Hopefully they can help you there as well.

Amy Quispe

[Liran Barsisa]

OK, i've found the issue. Forgot I had a flag that I've set to false that says not to show banners on emulators and debug versions.

Also, about the SMART_BANNER . I already wrote it in code. forgot that I've found it.

However, the part I didn't understand about the banners is how to get their height, as used by "getHeightInPixels" on the previous SDK.

On Thursday, April 17, 2014 11:46:57 PM UTC+3, Liran Barsisa wrote:

Hello Amy,

I can't find out how to get it working on the emulator then. 
Are you sure you've succeeded doing so on the emulator? 

I wish to be sure it works on devices that don't have the Google Play Services, and currently that's the way I can do it .

Is there any difference in the code in order to make it work on such devices , compared to the one that uses Google Play Services?

I've found on the samples that you need to call "isGooglePlayServicesAvailable" before using admob. Is it wrong? If I remove it, I can see it still doesn't work.

I've also added the code of adding the emulator as a test device:  builder.addTestDevice(AdRequest.DEVICE_ID_EMULATOR);

It still doesn't work as opposed to running on a real device.

Using the old SDK (the stand alone one) it worked perfectly for me. Now I also can't even find the way to use "AdSize.SMART_BANNER" anymore.

Also, about the link, thank you.

Since I'm also quite new to Google groups too, where can I ask about Google Groups? The website has a lot of basic things missing compared to other forums, or at least it looks like it.

[Amy Quispe (AdMob SDK Team)]

Hi Liran,

Why do you need the height? Can't you use wrap_content for the AdView size?

Amy

[Liran Barsisa]

For some reason my answer wasn't published.

Anyway, one reason for getting the height is that I can put an alternative content there while it loads the ad.