Upgrade your Android Google Mobile Ads SDK to ensure ads keep serving

Question

I received this message today:

Hi AdMob Publisher, In early July, we sent out a notice to AdMob Publishers who have apps running on SDK version 6.4.1 and lower, to inform them about deprecating SDK versions and the need to upgrade by September 15, 2016. We apologize for any inconvenience or unclarity that the email may have caused to some developers. To ensure that you have sufficient time to make the changes, we have extended the deprecation date to October 17, 2016. We also reevaluated the SDK versions being deprecated, so here is the updated information. What will happen starting on October 17, 2016: • All support for non-Google Play Services supported SDKs and Google Mobile Ads SDK version listed here will be deprecated. • This means that all traffic from these SDKs will be disabled. What you will need to do: In order to ensure that your AdMob ads continue to serve after October 17, 2016, please upgrade your apps to run on the minimum SDK versions listed here. If you are using a Google Mobile Ads SDK version from Play Services that is listed on this link, you are not required to take any action. If you have any questions, please contact us on the developer forum. Thank you, and stay tuned for more updates and tips. Cheers, The AdMob Team

I am using Play services Version 4.4.52-000. Is this version ok? Do I need to update?

Answer 1

Click on link provided in email https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/android-legacy-release-notes

"Prior to becoming part of Google Play services, AdMob had a standalone SDK with the following versions and release notes listed below ( Refer to link ).

On October 17th, 2016, AdMob will stop serving ads to the SDK versions listed below. If your apps are still using any of these SDKs, follow our Get Started to integrate with AdMob's Google Play services SDK."

The note you have gotten about the SDK needing to be higher than v6.4.1 refers to a legacy, standalone Mobile Ads SDK that was deprecated back in February 2014, and that had its own versioning system.

If your google_play_services_version > 4 , you don't need to make immediate update however it's good practice to upgrade to latest versions of play services library.

EDIT 7-Oct-2016: If you are using a Google Mobile Ads SDK version from Play Services that is listed on this link, you are not required to take any action.

I think majority of confusion occurred due to version numbers between Admob Standalone SDK and version number of Google Play Services.