Unwanted Silent TV Dependency

[Casper Halleriet]

I might have been doing something wrong, but when using the dependency:
com.google.ads.interactivemedia.v3:interactivemedia:3.31.0
A transient dependency on com.google.android.tv:tv-ads:1.0.0-alpha02 gets added.

This is a problem when releasing an app bundle to the Play store with 2 Form factors. 1 For mobile and 1 for tv. Since this dependency adds the following lines to the manifest for mobile (logs from Manifest merger)

uses-feature#android.software.leanback
ADDED from [com.google.android.tv:tv-ads:1.0.0-alpha02] 

Which then is a problem in the Google Play store where we get the following error:
APKs and bundles must not require the following features: android.software.leanback.

For now i did the following, but i have no clue if this breaks internally things regarding ads

implementation(dependencies.ima){
    exclude group: "com.google.android.tv", module: "tv-ads"
}

 

Is this a correct sollution. And is it an idea to add this to some documentation? Or to have difference between IMA dependencies for mobile and tv?

[IMA SDK]

Hi Casper,

Thank you for contacting the IMA SDK support team.

Yes, excluding the com.google.android.tv:tv-ads dependency is a correct solution to the problem you are describing. This will prevent the android.software.leanback feature from being added to your app manifest, which will resolve the error you are seeing in the Google Play store.

You should confirm that this does not break anything regarding your app, as this is required for Android TV support. However, this is unlikely since it only applies to TV devices.

Thank you,
IMA SDK team

ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02pU96o:ref

[Borek Beker]

Hi,

Thanks for the workaround. We had the same problem and learned in the hard way (our mobile app was installable on Android TV devices).

Will this problem be picked up in future versions? A warning in the documentation would be something and easy to do. 

Also, excluding the module (as described in the workaround) might lead to undesirable behaviour in future versions as we would not be sure why the module is added and what is used by IMA.

There are probably apps out in the Play Store which are now available for Android TV without the developer knowing.

Thanks!

[IMA SDK]

Hi,

Thank you for getting back to us.

At present, we do not have any information regarding forthcoming releases. Kindly monitor the release notes for updates.
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02pU96o:ref"

Thanks,
 

IMA SDK Team

 

[Fernando Pitters]

We are also facing this issue, we had to manually remove the unwanted feature declaration from the flavors that don't use leanback

    <!-- Remove leanback feature included by IMA library -->
    <uses-feature
        android:name="android.software.leanback"
        tools:node="remove" />

I don't think a library should declare that dependency.

[IMA SDK]

Hi Fernando,

Thank you for getting back to us.

The app is created for both mobile devices and TV devices then this dependency gets added, as mentioned in https://developer.android.com/training/tv/get-started/create#leanback-req. Additional dependency and manifest files are added only for the apps targeting TV devices. Hence when the app is subjected for use in both TV and Mobile they must disable the leanback feature: <manifest>
    <uses-feature android:name="android.software.leanback"
        android:required="false" />
    ...
</manifest> 

This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02pU96o:ref" (ADR-00205563)

Thanks,
 

IMA SDK Team

[IMA SDK]

Hi,

Please be informed that our support channel can only best assist you with regards to Google IMA SDK implementation and technical issues. Having said that, would you be able to confirm if you have any issues with the SDK? If so, kindly elaborate it here and give full context of your concern so we can guide you accordingly.