Aging Ad Plugins Getting Critical

Solar2D Monetization (in-app purchases, ads, etc.)
#1

I’ve received messages from AdMob and Vungle recently, as I suspect have many developers, reminding me of the necessity to upgrade my version of their SDK to avoid exclusion from various app stores.

Specifically:

After June 29, Google Play Store will no “longer support” apps that use any Vungle SDK older than version 6.5 because they allow side loading. My interpretation of the letter is that this applied to new and updated apps, not that existing apps would be removed from the store. (The current plugin is version 6.3.2 according to Vungle.)

Apple has already stopped accepting new apps that use UIWebView and will stop accepting updates that use UIWebView in December 2020. According to Google, versions of their plugin prior to 7.55.0, released on Feb 4th, 2020, still default to UIWebView. (We’re using version 7.53.1, according to my Console logs.)

The email from Google also included a handy list of other ad providers’ minimum SDK for UIWebview compliance:

  • AdColony: 4.1.2
  • AppLovin: 6.9.0 (Current: 5.1.2)
  • Chartboost: 8.0.3 (Current: 8.0.4)
  • Facebook: 5.6.0 (Current: 5.6.0)
  • InMobi: 9.0.1
  • ironSource: 6.8.7
  • MoPub: 5.9.0
  • Tapjoy: 12.3.3
  • Unity: 3.3.0
  • Vungle: 6.4.3 (Current: 6.3.2)

I don’t run all these plugins, so I can’t check them, but I think that the above list goes a long way towards explaining the UIWebView issue discussed in another thread and also points to a sharply curtailed pool of ad networks for iOS apps to draw on come December.

The Vungle plugin is first-party, and I’ve reached out to them to see if they are planning on updating their plugin for Corona (now Solar2D). The initial response was a fill-in-the-blanks reply that made zero sense, as was to be expected, but I’ll keep trying to work my way up customer support to see if I can actually get to an engineer.

As for the rest, I know Solar2D is an open-source, community-based platform now, but I do not posses the necessary skills to take a crack at updating a plugin, so I’m putting it out to the rest of the community: This is a problem we need to solve or we’re going to start seeing some drops in our revenue.

Colin.

1 Like
#2

Thanks @colinmorgan . I’ve received the same warning emails from Vungle and Admob and I am super concerned about this as well. Our apps use five of the plugins listed by Google and those advertisers deliver a LARGE proportion of our app incomes.

Are others out there in the same boat? Do others have thoughts suggestions on how to tackle this economically?

Thanks;

Steve

#3

Hi folks,
let me join the party :partying_face:

I’m worried to see just 2 users talking about this problem.
There must be thousands of devs using these plugins… and we have just 25 days left.

Do we have any solution?
I would move to a different ads network if that would help.

Sui

#4

From the looks of it, someone with native development skills should take on updating those plugins for the community.

2 Likes
#5
  1. Has anyone updated the ad plugins?
  2. Which ad networks monetize the best?
  3. How much can I expect to earn by adding ads to our games?
#6

@vlads updated the Appodeal plugin but I don’t know about the others. Appodeal 2.6.3 when?

#7

I plan on making my own iron source and Admob plugin for firebase. There will be up on solar2dmarketplace.com soon.

1 Like
#8

For whatever it is worth my ironsource plugin is available in the other solar2d store. https://www.solar2dplugins.com/plugins/ironsource-

In the future depending on the cost of Scott’s plugin I might switch to his, but for now mine is being used by a couple of people here and myself. It is stable and I update it at least once a month.

1 Like
#9

Released the new Ironsource Plugin here
https://solar2dmarketplace.com/plugins?IronSource_tech-scotth

1 Like
#10

Also want to mention that the source code for the old plugin are not available anywhere. Even if you were incline to update them. What is in github is the precompiled plugins (at least last time I checked).