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Problem with Rewarded Videos and Google Play policies/requirements

Discussion in 'Unity Ads & User Acquisition' started by squidbeam, Oct 25, 2020.

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  1. squidbeam

    squidbeam

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    Jul 27, 2013
    Posts:
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    My Google Play/Android game only uses banners and rewarded videos (the latter are only displayed/activated when the player dies and wants to continue). I've never had any problems before (the game was released last year) and the latest APK was approved by the store on October 9th this year.

    However, I just changed the game's description and it was rejected by Google because it now broke the Families Policy Requirements for the following reason:

    "Ads that interfere with normal app use that are not closeable after 5 seconds."

    I believe Unity's reward videos are not closeable after 5 seconds (but I may be wrong because I try to never test my game with real ads, so it is difficult for me to check). Is it the case?

    This is odd because I've used Unity Ads in my game for a long time and never had any problems, but I believe the Google Play policy recently changed, could this be causing the rejection?

    Update: I bit the bullet and tried to play the game with real Unity ads - and yes, it is the case, Rewarded Videos don't have an option to be interrupted after 5 seconds (and therefore lose the reward in such case). This may not comply with Google Play's latest policies... is this correct?

    Thanks for your help :)
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2020
  2. berukulama

    berukulama

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    There may be an issue with ad placements. It will work better where the game stops.
     
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  3. Unity_Adamski

    Unity_Adamski

    Unity Technologies

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    Jul 20, 2020
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    Hi, if you go into the settings for your placement on the Unity Monetize Dashboard you should e able to change this setting. The setting is title 'Allow Skip' by default this is st to 'No' for rewarded ads. Try setting this to 'Allow Skip After 5 Seconds'
     
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  4. squidbeam

    squidbeam

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    Jul 27, 2013
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    Thank you for your quick reply, I really appreciate it! I think this would definitely work, sorry, I didn't realize rewarded ads had an 'allow skip' option in the settings. I'll experiment with that and change it.

    After thinking about the rejection note from Google Play, I've decided to change the way how I use Rewarded Ads in my game. I use them when the player loses all his/her lives and wants to continue - but I only give this option which is also probably why Google Play rejected the game... this is just a guess as "Ads that interfere with normal app use" is a little vague but I want to make sure I'm doing it right :)

    Thanks again for your help.
     
  5. squidbeam

    squidbeam

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    I actually have the rewarded ad option appear when the player loses all his/her lives and wants to continue... so technically I didn't realize that would be an issue (the game stops when that happens). Which is odd because that mechanic has been in the game since I released it last year, and it has never been a problem before. Furthermore, it was rejected after I submitted a change to the store description (I made a new trailer), and not when I submitted a new APK (which was actually approved two weeks ago). When I received the rejection email I thought that it was a scam, but realized that it wasn't when I logged in to look at my dashboard... oh well, I'm fixing that issue and will hopefully have everything working again soon :)

    Thanks again for your reply, I really appreciate it.
     
  6. Macaquito69

    Macaquito69

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    I am also having this kind of issue while trying to upload to play store.
    Already configured the placements to ALLOW the skip in 5 seconds but it does not work.
    I saw in older posts that rewarded videos do not allow skipping.....really do not know what to do anymore.
     
  7. Macaquito69

    Macaquito69

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    Apr 24, 2020
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    It is in the documentation....I wonder how a unity guy tells people to use the option and does not know what is in the documentation........:confused: upload_2020-10-29_15-57-9.png
     
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  8. squidbeam

    squidbeam

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    I've been looking at fixing the problem on my side and it seems to work - at least it seems to work with the Unity Test ads (a button appears on the ad after 5 seconds to skip it). I had to change my code so I can catch that and don't offer the reward. However, I haven't tested with real ads, but I assume that if it works for the test ad, it will work with a real one?... fingers crossed...

    To be honest, I'm having more issues with the new google play dashboard right now and being hit by unexpected behaviors... like a review being automatically submitted when you press 'Save' on the main store listing (I recall that I had to explicitly submit it before, maybe I'm wrong... caught me by surprise though). Or internal testing APKs now being reviewed... used to be instant... I just hope my game won't get suspended while I go through all these hoops to fix this issue... :(
     
  9. squidbeam

    squidbeam

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    I implemented the 'Allow Skip' option last week and it seems to work, thanks again for your help :)

    My app got rejected again because of Families Policy Requirements... and the "Ads that interfere with normal app use that are not closeable after 5 seconds." is still listed, although I tested it and the real ads are closeable after 5s... so I am investigating this...

    Additionally, I now received another list of Families Policy Requirement issues from Google Play (not listed the first time). I had to run the game with real ads to see what the problems could be - I noticed that my Unity Banners do sometime pop up during gameplay. I think it is related to the coroutine that runs in the background until the banner is ready. I'm changing that code to make sure it doesn't happen - however, I had never noticed that behavior before because test banners do appear when requested (which makes sense). I can only debug this using real banner ads, do you think this will ban me from the Unity Ads program if I do? I wanted to ask you before I proceed with this... is there a way to test potential delay in banner ads without using real ads?

    Thanks for your help :)
     
  10. squidbeam

    squidbeam

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    I'm sorry but I had to try to fix the banner issue today with live ads. I think I eventually did and submitted a new build to Google Play. Please don't ban my account from the Unity Ads program - I didn't click on any banners or played any rewarded ads. But it was the only way I could think of in order to test my code.. test mode would always fill the banner ads and never put me in the situation (I believe) where banners would appear with a delay, and therefore cause Google Play to trigger a rejection... Thank you for understanding :)
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2020
  11. Macaquito69

    Macaquito69

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    Apr 24, 2020
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    Did you manage to make it work?
    upload_2020-11-4_11-11-30.png
    My placements are all configured like this and they do not present skip button in 5 secs. Neither on editor or building apk to test on Android.
     
  12. Macaquito69

    Macaquito69

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  13. squidbeam

    squidbeam

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    Yes, this is the option I used and in my case it did activate this button that appears after 5 seconds and skips the rewarded ad. Here is what I see in my app:



    This seems to have worked with Google Play... that being said, Google Play did reject my app again after I submitted a new build with this fix and I received a list of new Family Policy issues to address, including the ability to skip rewarded ads after 5s (again). But it wasn't clear which APK had the issue (looks like they now include/review all the latest APKs you submit, not only the most recent one). From my last submission, the problem is now gone and I have only one issue to fix... fingers crossed :)
     
  14. Macaquito69

    Macaquito69

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    Apr 24, 2020
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    oh god....hoooooow?
    Can you please share your ad script with me? I really do not know what is happening and why this fuc!#@$ button does not appear....and Unity helps is equal to zero =(
     
  15. Macaquito69

    Macaquito69

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    @squidbeam please help me
    my game is done only waiting to fix this to go live.
     
  16. squidbeam

    squidbeam

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    My ad script doesn't really have anything special in it... I just used the template from the Unity documentation (I heavily changed the banner code because I was having problems with the coroutine, but the rewarded video code is pretty much the same). Did you check that you're pointing to the right placement id? I wouldn't think the ad script really controls how the rewarded videos behave... but here is the rewarded video part from my code:

    Code (CSharp):
    1.     private bool showRewardedAd(){
    2.    
    3.         if (Advertisement.IsReady(rewardedVideoId)){
    4.             hideBanner();
    5.             var options = new ShowOptions { resultCallback = HandleShowResult  };
    6.             Advertisement.Show(rewardedVideoId, options);
    7.             return true;
    8.         }
    9.        
    10.         return false;
    11.  
    12.     }
    13.  
    14.     private void HandleShowResult (ShowResult result){
    15.    
    16.         switch(result){
    17.             case ShowResult.Finished:
    18.                 if (verbose) Debug.Log("Reward!");
    19.                 StartCoroutine(activeReward());
    20.             break;
    21.    
    22.             case ShowResult.Skipped:
    23.                 if (verbose) Debug.Log("No Reward!");
    24.                 StartCoroutine(activeSkipped());
    25.                
    26.             break;
    27.            
    28.             case ShowResult.Failed:
    29.                 if (verbose) Debug.Log("Failed!");
    30.             break;
    31.         }
    32.    
    33.     }
    If it helps, I use Unity 2018.1.0f2 and, I believe, Unity Monetization v3.0.1
     
  17. Macaquito69

    Macaquito69

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    what do you have implemented in the coroutine activeSkipped?
    please paste me the code lines =)
     
  18. jimmying

    jimmying

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    Sep 20, 2017
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    I just got this rejection notice as well. Did you try to dispute it, though?

    Not sure how exactly you implemented it, but for me, the user needs to make a choice to view the rewarded ads -- i.e. so they don't need to view it. Basically my app lets you record video and if they view the rewarded ad, they're allowed to record a little longer. So, really, the user can still use the app the same way with or without viewing the rewarded ad.

    My argument is that the rewarded ads do not "interfere with normal app use". i.e. the user needs to make a choice to view the ad which is the whole point of a rewarded ad.

    Anyway, I'm still gonna try dispute it. Wish me luck!

    Also is there a reason why you're so conscious about testing live ads? Have you been suspended/warned in the past regarding this? This is my first time developing with Unity Ads and I've never been really cautious with it. About once a month I'd do heavy on-device testing and maybe go through 10 live ads (across multiple devices) each time, sometimes more, sometimes less. Never had a problem so far.
     
  19. squidbeam

    squidbeam

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    Here is my activeSkipped() code - I'm not sure if it would really help you though because this communicates with my Ad interface. The Ad interface is a bridge between my game and the Ad network code, this way I don't have to change anything in my game code if I decide to pick a different one...

    Code (CSharp):
    1.     public IEnumerator activeSkipped(){
    2.         yield return null;
    3.         ADBridgeScript.ActivePlayerExitedAd();
    4.     }
     
  20. squidbeam

    squidbeam

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    I didn't try to dispute it, no. I have many friends developing Android apps who disputed issues with Google Play in the past - it was complicated and, in the end, didn't really help them. So this is why I wanted to look into the issue first, even if it meant that I had to redesign a couple of things in my game. Good luck and don't hesitate to let me know how it goes :)

    And I hear you, I also found the argument of rewarded ads to do not "interfere with normal app use" to be really subjective...

    About testing live ads, it is part of Unity Ads' terms of service so yes, you take the risk of being suspended/warned. I believe Unity is not as strict as Google (Adsense/Admob) who will definitely terminate your account if you do...
     
  21. jimmying

    jimmying

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    Anyway, they rejected my dispute. I don't know why I bother with disputes. I've tried it in the past and they never address my reason or questions. Honestly I reckon I'm just talking to a bot.

    I did however make the change in the Unity Dashboard to enable the skip after 5 seconds, resubmitted and got my update accepted after a few days.
     
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