Global Settings

The GADMobileAds class provides global settings for controlling certain information collected by the Mobile Ads SDK.

Video ad volume control

If your app has its own volume controls (such as custom music or sound effect volumes), disclosing app volume to the Google Mobile Ads SDK allows video ads to respect app volume settings. This ensures users receive video ads with the expected audio volume.

The device volume, controlled through volume buttons or OS-level volume slider, determines the volume for device audio output. However, apps can independently adjust volume levels relative to the device volume to tailor the audio experience. You can report the relative app volume to the Google Mobile Ads SDK by setting the applicationVolume property. Valid ad volume values range from 0.0 (silent) to 1.0 (current device volume). Here's an example of how to report the relative app volume to the SDK:

Swift

func viewDidLoad() {
  super.viewDidLoad()
  // Set app volume to be half of the current device volume.
  GADMobileAds.sharedInstance().applicationVolume = 0.5
  ...
}

Objective-C

- (void)viewDidLoad {
  [super viewDidLoad];
  // Set app volume to be half of the current device volume.
  [GADMobileAds sharedInstance].applicationVolume = 0.5;
  ...
}

To inform the Google Mobile Ads SDK that the app volume has been muted, set the applicationMuted property, as shown below:

Swift

GADMobileAds.sharedInstance().applicationMuted = true

Objective-C

[GADMobileAds sharedInstance].applicationMuted = YES;

Unmuting the app volume reverts it to its previously set level. By default, the app volume for the Google Mobile Ads SDK is set to 1 (the current device volume).

Note: Video ads that are ineligible to be shown with muted audio are not returned for ad requests made when the app volume is reported as muted or set to a value of 0. This may restrict a subset of the broader video ads pool from serving.

Changing audio session

Audio sessions allow you to express to the system your intentions for your app's audio behavior. Additional information on audio sessions can be found in Apple's Audio Session Programming Guide. The available options for managing the Google Mobile Ads SDK audio is via the audioVideoManager property.

If you don't use audio in your app, you don't need to use these APIs. The Google Mobile Ads SDK will automatically manage the audio session category when it plays audio. If you do play audio in your app and you want tighter control of how and when Google Mobile Ads SDK plays audio, these APIs can help.

On the audio video manager, you can set the audioSessionIsApplicationManaged property to YES if you want to take responsibility for managing the audio session category yourself.

If you will manage the audio session category, you should implement GADAudioVideoManagerDelegate and set the delegate property on the audio video manager to be notified of ads video and audio playback events. You should then change the audio session category to the relevant category as per Apple's Audio Session Programming Guide linked above.

Note: By default, the Mobile Ads SDK will set the audio session category to AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient when playing ads muted. If you prefer to have your app use AVAudioSessionCategoryOptionDuckOthers in this scenario, you must implement the GADAudioVideoManagerDelegate protocol and set the audio video manager audioSessionIsApplicationManaged to YES.

Here is a simplified code sample which shows the recommended approach if your app plays music, using above APIs.

Swift

func setUp() {
    GADMobileAds.sharedInstance().audioVideoManager.delegate = self
    GADMobileAds.sharedInstance().audioVideoManager.audioSessionIsApplicationManaged = false
}
func myAppWillStartPlayingMusic() {
    // Mutes all Google video ads.
    GADMobileAds.sharedInstance().audioVideoManager.audioSessionIsApplicationManaged = true
    GADMobileAds.sharedInstance().applicationMuted = true
}
func myAppDidStopPlayingMusic() {
    // Un-mutes all of our video ads.
    GADMobileAds.sharedInstance().audioVideoManager.audioSessionIsApplicationManaged = false
    GADMobileAds.sharedInstance().applicationMuted = false
}

// MARK: - GADAudioVideoManagerDelegate
func audioVideoManagerWillPlayAudio(_ audioVideoManager: GADAudioVideoManager) {
    // The mobile ads SDK is notifying your app that it will play audio. You
    // could optionally pause music depending on your apps design.
    MyAppObject.sharedInstance().pauseAllMusic()
}

func audioVideoManagerDidStopPlayingAudio(_ audioVideoManager: GADAudioVideoManager) {
    // The mobile ads SDK is notifying your app that it has stopped playing
    // audio. Depending on your design, you could resume music here.
    MyAppObject.sharedInstance().resumeAllMusic()
}

Objective-C

- (void)setUp {
  [GADMobileAds sharedInstance].audioVideoManager.delegate = self;
  [GADMobileAds sharedInstance].audioVideoManager.audioSessionIsApplicationManaged = NO;
}

- (void)myAppWillStartPlayingMusic {
  // Mutes all Google video ads.
  [GADMobileAds sharedInstance].audioVideoManager.audioSessionIsApplicationManaged =
  YES;
  [GADMobileAds sharedInstance].applicationMuted = YES;
}
- (void)myAppDidStopPlayingMusic {
  // Un-mutes all of our video ads.
  [GADMobileAds sharedInstance].audioVideoManager.audioSessionIsApplicationManaged =
  NO;
  [GADMobileAds sharedInstance].applicationMuted = NO;
}

#pragma mark - GADAudioVideoManagerDelegate

- (void)audioVideoManagerWillPlayAudio:(GADAudioVideoManager *)audioVideoManager {
  // The mobile ads SDK is notifying your app that it will play audio. You
  // could optionally pause music depending on your apps design.
  [[MyAppObject sharedInstance] pauseAllMusic];
}

- (void)audioVideoManagerDidStopPlayingAudio:(GADAudioVideoManager *)audioVideoManager {
    // The mobile ads SDK is notifying your app that it has stopped playing
    // audio. Depending on your design, you could resume music here.
  [[MyAppObject sharedInstance] resumeAllMusic];
}

Crash reporting

The Mobile Ads SDK inspects exceptions that occur in an iOS app and records them if they are caused by the SDK. These exceptions are collected so we can prevent them in future SDK versions.

Crash reporting is enabled by default. If you don't want SDK-related exceptions to be recorded, you can disable this feature by calling the disableSDKCrashReporting method. The best place to call this method is when the app launches:

Swift

AppDelegate.swift

func application(application: UIApplication,
    didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [NSObject: AnyObject]?) -> Bool {
  GADMobileAds.disableSDKCrashReporting()
  return true
}

Objective-C

AppDelegate.m

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
    didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
  [GADMobileAds disableSDKCrashReporting];
  return YES;
}