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androidandroid-intentadmobinterstitial

Behavior showing an Interstitial Ad on an activity using a SurfaceView

I'm using, among other views, a SurfaceView in my main activity.

The class which extends the SurfaceView implements also the SurfaceHolder.Callback with the callback methods:

  • surfaceCreated
  • surfaceChanged
  • surfaceDestroyed

I'm also using the Google Admob Mobile Ads SDK to show Interstitial ads.

Now I experience two different behavior starting a child activity started by me and showing an interstitial ad started using the Google Admob SDK.

  1. Behavior starting a child activity by myself

I use

startActivity(new Intent(getBaseContext(), SettingsActivity.class));

which calls the SurfaceHolder.Callback methods surfaceDestroyed and surfaceCreated once I return to the main activity.

  1. Behavior starting a interstitial ad from the Google Admob SDK

I use

if(_myInterstitialAd.isLoaded())
{
  _myInterstitialAd.show();
}

which calls the SurfaceHolder.Callback methods surfaceChanged and surfaceChanged once I return to the main activity. Yes, it calls the surfaceChanged twice.

With the Android Studio "Layout Inspector" I see that the started interstitial ad is also an Activity (com.google.android.gms.ads.AdActivity). So I'm really wondering what is when I start my own activities.

Google AdActivity

Can someone explain how does Google achieve this behavior that only the surfaceChanged methods are called?

Maybe I miss an Intent flag on my startActivity call?

Solution

  • Here is what I've figured out. If someone can tell me more accurate information about it I'll be happy to accept a "full" explaining answer.

    Can someone explain how does Google achieve this behavior that only the surfaceChanged methods are called?

    Answer: The surfaceChanged method is called because the Interstitial Ad is displayed as full screen. I can trigger the same behavior following Googles description.

    I strongly assume that the AdActivity is not actually an activity (I'm happy if someone proofs me wrong) which is why surfaceDestroyed and surfaceCreated are not called when the Interstitial Ad is shown.