[Feature Request] Allow inline video playback for SIMID ads in IMA iOS SDK

[Klaas-Jan Boon]

Hi,

For various types of SIMID creatives we'd like to be able to use inline video playback, such as chooser formats where a user can select different videos to play within the ad, or opt for a shorter/longer ad.

Currently this works fine with the IMA HTML5 and IMA Android SDK, but the IMA iOS SDK forces inline videos to go fullscreen once the user takes an action to play them, despite "playsinline" and "webkit-playsinline" being added to the video elements.

We believe this is because the "allowsInlineMediaPlayback" property (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/wkwebviewconfiguration/1614793-allowsinlinemediaplayback?language=objc) is not set, or set to false.

Could this be changed so the various SDKs behave consistently?

This can be tested with the following SIMID tag: https://www.bluebillywig.tv/simid-inline-video-test/tag.php?creative=selector-scaled

This tag contains a slightly modified version of the official IAB example here: https://github.com/InteractiveAdvertisingBureau/SIMID/blob/master/examples/creatives/selector.html , with slightly adjusted positioning and scaling and some extra attributes on the video elements.

Kind regards,

Klaas-Jan Boon

[IMA SDK]

Hi,

I understand that you'd like to request for a feature for the iOS SDK to allow inline video playback for SIMID ads. With this, kindly provide us with your business use-case why you need the said feature.

Looking forward to your response.

This message is in relation to case "ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2lJcn1:ref"

Thanks,
 

IMA SDK Team

[Klaas-Jan Boon]

Hi,

Please refer to the first paragraph in my original message for the business case.

Inline video playback is required to realize various ad formats to create a rich viewer experience. Please let me know if you need a more fully-featured SIMID or VPAID ad making use of inline video playback as an example.

Kind regards,

Klaas-Jan Boon

[IMA SDK]

Hi Klaas,

Thank you for providing the requested information. With that said, allow me to communicate this request to the rest of the team. For any updates, kindly keep an eye on our blog and release notes.
 
Reference links:

• blog - https://ads-developers.googleblog.com/search/label/ima_sdk
• release notes - https://developers.google.com/interactive-media-ads/docs/sdks/ios/client-side/history

[Klaas-Jan Boon]

Hi,

Thanks for passing the feature request along. Do you update on if this has  been moved along in the development cycle or has been rejected? We continue to have to implement workarounds if we want to run SIMID over VPAID on iOS.

Kind regards,

Klaas-Jan Boon

[IMA SDK]

Hi Klaas,

Thank you for your response.

We really appreciate the workaround you have implemented for your use case while waiting for this to be available in IMA SDK. We will continue to ask for your patience to keep an eye on our blog and release notes for any updates.

[IMA SDK]

Hi Klaas,

Thank you for patiently waiting.

I have received an update from our team that this feature should now be supported. It was a change to the native JS layer of the IMA and as such will not appear in the release notes, and does not require upgrading to a new version of the IMA iOS SDK.

[Joni Cong]

Hi Google IMA team,

With GoogleIMA SDK version 3.19.1, our team experienced the same thing, 

the WKWebView used by GoogleIMA had the `allowsInlineMediaPlayback` property with the value `false`. 

The result, when the user taps an interactive ad, it will always open the full-screen player.

One solution we got was to swizzle the `allowsInlineMediaPlayback` attribute to always return `true`, 

it works, but this will affect everyone who uses native WKWebView, which is not preferred.

So, it is possible for the Google IMA team to update the default value of `allowsInlineMediaPlayback` to `true` for WKWebview inside Google IMA SDK, 

or implement a new interface, so that developers have the option to change the value?

Thank you in advance.

- Joni Cong

[IMA SDK]

Hi Joni,

Thank you for getting back to us.

If you are facing issues with Inline video playback in iOS even in GoogleIMA SDK version 3.19.1. Please let us know if you’re running the inline video playback in the Native iOS App or Web App running inside the mobile Safari browser app. Kindly provide the below information for further investigation so that we can have full visibility of your implementation:

• Charles logs
• Video recording
• Sample project reproducing the issue in version 3.19.1

This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02lJcn1:ref"

Thanks,
 

IMA SDK Team