Improve IMA load time

The IMA SDK loads dependencies to request Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) streams, measure viewability and report ad impressions. By initializing IMA before you make a stream request, you maximize the time to load IMA dependencies before stream playback. This page covers how to handling IMA load times in your app.

Call ImaSdkFactory.initialize()

The ImaSdkFactory.initialize() method starts to preload SDK resources in advance of the first stream request. To use initialize(), you need IMA version 3.35.1 or higher.

Call ImaSdkFactory.initialize() on application startup, or as early in the application's lifecycle as your app structure allows. The initialize() call takes the following parameters:

• context: Uses the application context, which is always available during the lifecycle of the application.
• settings: Pass the an ImaSdkSettings object with its values set. The IMA settings used in the initialize() call must be the same as the settings values used in the createAdsLoader() call. The IMA SDK utilizes these settings, particularly the language setting, for cache key. We don't recommend using test or fake values for the settings used in the initialize() method call, as cache misses might occur and increase ad load time.

Reuse the AdsLoader instance

To improve IMA load time, we recommend you reuse the same AdsLoader instance. The AdsLoader interface can handle multiple ad or stream requests. Avoid creating a new AdsLoader instance for each request. Creating a new AdsLoader instance requires a load time, and uses additional device resources.

Request streams in advance of playback

If you have access to the AdsLoader instance prior to starting stream playback, you can also call the AdsLoader.requestStream() method early. Making this call starts loading the DAI stream. When the user is ready to start stream playback, call the StreamManager.init() method to initialize stream playback.