IMA SDK Ad-related events are fired with a delay or aren't fired at all

[Paul Ivanov]

Hello!

Description: Ad-related events are fired with a delay or aren't fired at all if an ad starts in the background or PiP mode.

XCode: 13.0

Device: iPhone 12 Pro

iOS: v15.0

iOS IMA SDK: 3.14.4

This is reproducible out-of-the-box in the AdvancedExample (Swift) with SDK 3.14.4. 

Steps to reproduce:

1. Navigate to the project root

2. Execute pod install 

3. Build and run the AdvancedExample

4. Select AdRules Pods example from the list

5. The Preroll ad starts

6. Wait for Preroll to end and for playback to start

7. Swipe up the screen from the very bottom to switch to the Picture-in-Picture mode

8. Wait for the Midroll

9. Midroll starts playing

As a result, we do not receive the ad-related events* or receive them with a delay and it also always breaks the transition from an ad back to the main content.

But when you go back from the PiP mode to the app all events are fired/received immediately and the transition from the ad to the main content happens.

*The delegate method “adsManager:didReceive:” isn’t called and there are no log messages in the console like “AdsManager event Optional(“Midpoint”)”. So you can either set a breakpoint in the delegate method or filter a console output out.

[IMA SDK]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for reaching out to us with your issue. In looking over this, we have seen this issue in the past and I see that a fix should have gone out with the  3.14.4 patch in July. We would ask if you can confirm that you are on the current SDK. Also here is a brief mention about this. Also we would suggest making sure you are on the current/updated Cocoapod.

Regards,

William Pescherine IMA SDK Team

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[Paul Ivanov]

Hi William,

Thanks for the reply! We've checked everything you mentioned and we can confirm the usage of the latest IMA SDK version and CocoaPods as well.

[IMA SDK]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for the response. Can you share with us either the sample code or link to the site that you have the SDK implemented on. So that we can look into this, as well as bring it to our team to see what could be wrong. At the same time, we ask if you have tested this against one of our samples .

[Paul Ivanov]

As I mentioned in the very first message here, we're able to reproduce this issue with your AdvancedExample (Swift) from your repository. I also attached the zip archive to my message.

[IMA SDK]

Hi Paul,

 

I'm Michael and I work along with William. Allow me to assist you here.

 

Could you please confirm if the issue here is specific to actual device or can be replicated with a simulator? I asked because we cannot replicate it on our end. Does this also happen to other iOS device versions aside from v15.0? Would it be possible for you to share with us a screen recording of the behavior. Upon submitting these requested details, we will raise it to the rest of the team for further investigation.

Regards,

Michael Angelo Legaspi IMA SDK Team

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[Paul Ivanov]

Hi Michael,

- Question 1: Could you please confirm if the issue here is specific to actual device or can be replicated with a simulator?

We can reproduce the missing events both on the simulator and on the actual devices, but there are several nuances:

1. The simulator doesn't support PiP.

2. The AdvancedExample project isn't correctly configured for the background playback, but we modified it (the link with project archive) and we can confirm the issue is reproducible when the app is in the background.

- Question 2: Does this also happen to other iOS device versions aside from v15.0?

We're able to reproduce it on iPhone 12 Pro iOS 15.0 and iPhone X iOS 14.6.

- Question 3: Would it be possible for you to share with us a screen recording of the behavior.

Yes, sure. I'm attaching the screen recording (used Google Drive because it's too large to be uploaded here) from my Mac where you will see the Xcode with all needed information and screen mirroring from my real device.

[IMA SDK]

Hi Paul,

 

Thank you for sharing all the requested information. I have raised this now to the rest of the team to further investigate. We will provide more information once we have the result of the investigation.

Regards,

[Lucky Goyal]

Hi IMA SDK Team, is there any update on this issue? Is any further information needed to investigate this issue?

[IMA SDK]

Hello,

 

Thank you for your response. Our team is currently investigating the issue here. Rest assured that you will be notified on this thread once we have receive sufficient information.

Regards,

Michael Angelo IMA SDK Team

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[Lucky Goyal]

Dear IMA SDK Team, any update on investigation please? It will be great if you can acknowledge whether the issue is reproducible and confirmed to be IMA SDK issue or not. This will give us direction if we need to wait for a fix in IMA SDK or not. 

Thanks,
Lucky Goyal

[IMA SDK]

Hi Lucky,

Thank you for following up. As per checking, this has been relayed to a wider team for further investigation. Unfortunately, we haven't receive any feedback yet. I'll make a follow up on this and let you know the soonest I hear back.

Regards,

Teejay Wennie IMA SDK Team

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[MacKenzie Glanzer]

Hello again IMA SDK team!

Do you have any updates on this issue by any chance? It would be great to have some feedback on this.

Thanks,

- MacKenzie (she/her)

[IMA SDK]

Hi MacKenzie,

Unfortunately, there is nothing actionable yet to relay. I raised your comments with my team and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Regards,

Aryeh IMA SDK Team

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[Daniel Weinberger]

Hi,

Is there any update? This is open for more than a year now, and still blocking some use cases of our customers.

Thanks,

Daniel

[IMA SDK]

Hi Daniel,

I'm afraid that the team is still looking into this. I've asked if there's any information that we could share to the publisher and let you know once I hear back from them.

Regards,

Teejay Wennie IMA SDK Team

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[Sheeba Kurtalam]

Hi IMA SDK team,

Do you have any updates on this issue? It's blocking our customers with pip support.

Thanks,
Sheeba

[IMA SDK]

Hi Sheeba,

I'm afraid that this is still under investigation. I've made a follow up and asked if there's any information that they share as of this moment. I'll let you know the soonest I hear back from them.
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2OWOKG:ref"

Thanks,
 

IMA SDK Team

[James Holding]

Can this be fixed please it has been almost two years since reported by multiple teams, 

Thanks 

James

[IMA SDK]

Hi James,

Thank you for following up. As per checking, this is still under investigation. Allow me to raise this with urgency to a wider team. I'll update this thread the soonest I hear back from them.

[IMA SDK]

Hi James,

This remains an open project with our engineering team, but the current state of Apple's management of backgrounded tasks limits our ability to prevent delayed ad events. As a result, barring changes to Apples task management this functionality is considered expected behavior for the foreseeable future.

Thanks,

Greg Schoppe

[James Holding]

Hi Greg, 

Thanks for the note above.

Best, 

James

[James Holding]

Just to add - Please do let us know if there has been any changes to the status of this, its something that continues to affect customers.

[IMA SDK]

Hi James,

Unfortunately there haven't been any new changed on this issue. Please keep an eye on our developer documentation, as wec[

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[IMA SDK]

Hi James,

 

Unfortunately there haven't been any new changed on this issue. Please keep an eye on our developer documentation, as we will certainly post updates there.

 

Thanks,

 

Greg Schoppe

IA SDK Team

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