On September 16th, 2015, the IMA HTML5 SDK will change how it handles custom playback. In order to provide a more seamless ad experience, custom playback on Android 4.0+ devices will be disabled.

As per a previous change, the SDK only selects custom playback when necessary. Since Android 4.0+ devices support standard rendering, it is no longer necessary to use custom playback on these devices.

What must I do to prepare for this change?

1. Double check to make sure you’re always passing in your content video element as the custom playback element. Custom playback will still be used in pre-4.0 Android environments.
2. On mobile, be sure you’re calling AdDisplayContainer.initialize() as a result of a user action. This method is not necessary in custom playback, but it must be called to play ads using standard rendering. Otherwise your ad video will not play. We recommend you always call this method on mobile, so your implementation will be ready for any future devices that support standard rendering.
3. If your code requires a reference to the <video> element playing the ad, then this change might break your implementation. Instead, check the return value of AdsManager.isCustomPlaybackUsed(). If the value is true, the content video reference will be the same as the ad video reference.

If you have any questions about these changes, feel free to contact us via the support forum.

 - Yury Pavlotsky, IMA SDK Team