Ad Network, Analytics, and iOS 14.

I just read this blog post from AppsFlyer: https://www.appsflyer.com/blog/skadnetwork-solution-ios14/

A new AppsFlyer SDK will be released soon. Not sure what it means for the Solar plugin, but from the tone of the article I get the feeling that it should be fairly easy to integrate the new SDK.

Just received mail from Flurry that a new SDK 11.0.0 supporting iOS 14 has been released.

Can we expect the official Solar Flurry plugin to be updated to support this before the release of iOS 14?

Dear Flurry Customer,

We are pleased to release our iOS 14 compliant SDK version 11.0.0. Please see here for documentation on upgrading to the newest version for your iOS mobile apps.

To clarify, Flurry Analytics complies with iOS 14 because the service is based on the Identifier for Vendors (IDFV) and not the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA). After iOS 14 launches, Flurry cannot use any data for advertising unless your end users opt-in, since the identifier will not be passed by Apple. For uninterrupted use of Flurry Analytics, you can and should continue to use the latest Flurry SDK. Whether or not your end user gives permission for “data tracking,” there is no impact on Flurry Analytics functionality or accuracy.

Regardless of your decision to serve the consent prompt, we strongly recommend that you upgrade to the latest Flurry SDK version. Should you decide to serve the prompt immediately, or in the future, your users’ opt-in status will be passed into Flurry. In addition, our new SDK enables you to pass your Conversion Values to Flurry as a standard Flurry User Property. With this new feature, you’ll be able to use Flurry to analyze your users’ Conversion Values with actual post-install behavior.

Current versions that support iOS 14:

  1. AdColony SDK 4.3 Network Id: “4PFYVQ9L8R”, “YCLNXRL5PM”, “V72QYCH5UU, 'TL55SBB4FM”, “T38B2KH725”, “PRCB7NJMU6”, “PPXM28T8AP”, “KLF5C3L5U5”, HS6BDUKANM",“C6K4G5QG8M”,“9T245VHMPL”,“9RD848Q2BZ”, “8S468MFL3Y”,“7UG5ZH24HU”, 4FZDC2EVR5", “4468KM3ULZ”, “3RD42EKR43”, and “2U9PT9HC89”.
  2. Admob released version 7.64.0 Network Id: “cstr6suwn9”
  3. Ironsource SDK 7. Network Id: “SU67R6K2V3”
  4. Appsflyer 6.0.1.
  5. UnityAd 4.3.7 Network Id: “4DZT52R2T5” and
    “bvpn9ufa9b”
  1. GameAnalytics: Changes in v.3.2.0
    updated user identifier flow to prepare for iOS 14 IDFA changes (ios)
  2. Flurry Analytics: 11.0.0
    Added support for iOS 14 App Tracking Transparency.

Nice to get a compiled list of all the supporting SDKs!

I still have a hard time wrapping my head around what this whole iOS 14 privacy thing means for the Solar2D plugins…? I guess that basically all plugins will require some kind of update? Is anybody working on this (@vlads)? Will the official plugins get updated? Or do we have to figure out solutions by ourselves?

I’m getting quite nervous about this whole thing because nobody (not just within Solar2D) seem to know exactly what it means for iOS apps and how Apple will react to apps not following the new privacy guidelines.

Best case is probably that apps can continue to function without SDK updates, but that means that attribution, ads and analytics will work significantly worse or not at all.

Worst case I suppose is that Apple will reject any app submissions that violate the privacy guidelines in any way, including updates of existing apps? Who knows, they might even remove existing apps from the App Store if issues are not addressed quick enough.

Finally, I don’t understand why there’s not more talk about this here at the forums when iOS 14 is just around the corner? It must be in every Solar2D developer’s interest to get this sorted out. At least if you have any plans of making money from apps in the App Store in the future… :thinking:

I am with you on this Markus_Ranner. My understanding is that the ad plugins are being updated. This was mentioned on one of the posts on here recently:

AdMob emailed me recently about “Update to iOS 14-compatible IMA SDK” and said:
“Update to the latest IMA SDK to avoid potential negative ad revenue impact”

I will hold off on updates now until the ad plugins are updated.

1 Like

I’m aware of the issue and working on the update(s).

2 Likes

Sounds good @vlads. Keep us posted with any news.

1 Like

Facebook blog about it:

I emailed Flurry about their plugin.

Nathalie Owen, Aug 25, 2020, 12:35 PM PDT:

Hello Tim,

Thank you for contacting Flurry Technical Support. That plugin is managed by a third party, rather than by Flurry, so whether or not it will work with the iOS 14 compatible SDK(11.0.0) is dependent on the plugin manager.

Please let me know if you have further questions or concerns.

Regards,
Nathalie

This is my current understanding of the situation. The old plugins will not ask for the IDFA since it is an explicit call to request IDFA. They will get a bunch of 0s.

If you use a new plugin 2 things will happen.

  1. It will ask for permission to use IDFA and if granted it will work as usual.
  2. If not and it has implemented the new id system the service will receive aggregated data.

At least that is what I understand currently.

2 Likes

Has the API to ask for permission to use IDFA been implemented in Solar yet?

Just a bit of information: Kochava Analytics also sent a message that they are -obviously- making changes for iOS 14. Wanted to add that to the list :slight_smile:

I am not aware of any plugin or changes to Solar2d to ask for IDFA.

Just to add some more data to this

  • Adjust is also updating its SDK for iOS 14/Solar 2D “in the next week or 2.”
  • Facebook is suppposed coming out with an updated iOS 14 SDK shortly for attribution.

It’s a mad dash for everyone…

  • Firebase is another one that’s updating.

Also for any custom plugins that we have that needs updating, do we need to have Solar2D updated to support iOS14 first before we can do the custom work on our end?

One other Question I have is, when can we starting building against iOS14 ourselves? My understanding is that, other than having each of the plugins updated to iOS14, the underlying Solar2D also needs to be updated before we can release with iOS14, right?

1 Like

The SKAdNetwork network Id implementation is already present in iOS 13.6.1 No changes required to release support of your native plugins. I have been updating my native plugins to support iOS 14.0 with the SKAdNetwork network Id.

For the ask for IDFA dialog box, I would expect Solar2d changes.

The framework is called AppTrackingTransparency.framework and it is only available by default on xCode 12. Now if you have an iPhone with iOS 14 beta installed and go to some of the big studio apps you will notice that the dialog is popping up. I did some research (asked around) and apparently you can download xCode 12 (beta) and copy the framework into your xCode 11 projects and then build. No new changes are expected in that AppTrackingTransparency framework.

@agramonte Sorry I should be clearer. We want to implement the updateConversionValue call in the new SKAdNetwork library for better attribution, which is coming out with iOS 14
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skadnetwork/verifying_an_install_validation_postback

Thanks for the tip on the xCode12 workaround… sounds like a bit of work…

1 Like

In my flurry plugin, I do a simple check to see if it is running on an iOS device before making that call. This is what the lua code looks on the lua side:

flurryAnalytics.updateConversionValue( <int value> ) -- corresponding to flurryUpdateConversionValue Flurry method.

--or

flurryAnalytics.updateConversionValue( "noEvent" ) -- Valid options are "registration", "login", "subscription", "inAppPurchase", or "noEvent". "noEvent" is default.

This should be an easy change to make in the official plugin.

So far in testing, it works as expected because although the functions don’t exist in 13.x the libraries do. But please remember that you should only do that call through one provider, so we really only need one provider to have it.