🎉 Admob now Available on Thunkable ✕ 2019-03-12

[domhnallohanlon]

We’re very pleased to announce the release of one of our most highly-anticipated components - AdMob!
The launch of this new service gives you three new components to choose from; banners, interstitials and rewarded videos. Please note, that for this initial release, you will have to submit your app for manual review in order to use any of the new AdMob components in your app.

Release Notes

Take a look at our release notes for a more detailed description of everything that’s included in this release.

Thunkable Live for Android

You’ll need v. 62 of the Live Companion app, head over to the Play Store to make sure you’re up-to-date.

Thunkable Live for iOS

We’re working hard to update Thunkable Live for iOS too, but right now live testing is only available for Android. For now, if you want to see what ads look like on iOS you’ll need to download and install your app directly to your device.

AdMob Banner

The Banner Ad is the simplest ad to use. Just drag-and-drop into your design and you’re done. You can have up to one banner ad per screen in your app.

AdMob Interstitial

You can use up to one Interstitial Ad ad per app, and it should only be triggered after an appropriate event has occurred in your app.

AdMob Rewarded Video

Typically you can show a Rewarded Video to your user after they have completed some difficult or challenging aspect of your app. You can use one rewarded video ad per app.

Using AdMob in Thunkable ✕

AdMob is our first component but what does that mean for you, our creators?

• ACCESS: Anyone with a Thunkable ✕ account can preview and live test theAdMob components in any of your apps, however if you want to download or publish your app then you will need a PRO membership.
• COST: Right now, we’re offering AdMob to you royalty free, i.e. with 0% commission. We do, however, reserve the right to charge a percentage of revenue as a maintenance fee in the future.
• REVIEW: In order to have access to the AdMob component you will have to submit your app for review. We reserve the right to revoke permission to use this component at any time.
• TROUBLESHOOTING: If you run into any difficulties using this component, please refer to the troubleshooting docs first.
• USAGE: Apps that encourage users to clicks ads in exchange for some form of payment will not be approved. Similarly, apps that repeatedly load banner ads in the background of apps will also be rejected.

[wei]

Now I can make some GOOD apps with AdMob and make some

[darren]

Way to go Thunkable team!

[domhnallohanlon]

@wei

Now I can make some GOOD apps with AdMob and make some

First you make the apps, then you make the money!!!

[Dean_Artis]

I hope this works properly otherwise this forum will be inundated with “Why Admob not work?” topics again.

[point]

If you enter live test inside ios and there is an ad project, you can not see anything (in ios) (see only white screen).

[point]

Thank you very much for your work. I waited a long time to add ads to my app😀

[domhnallohanlon]

Hi @point, glad you like it.

@domhnallohanlon

but right now live testing is only available for Android

That’s correct, we’ll post an update as soon as the new iOS Live Testing app is available.

[yuexi2009]

Hi Dean, thanks for your comment! what does work properly mean in the case of Admob? Could you please elaborate more? Your feedback is valuable to us especially at the early stage of Admob component development on the cross-platform. Thanks.

[Chris]

You CAN’T - because Thunkable X is lacking the most essential features. Instead you just add advertisement and other useless components that would make sense to introduce once the basics are there but they ARE NOT!

To me Thunkable is slowly but steady dying… Can’t wait until AppInventor release their iOS version. At least you can be assured they know what they are doing and they will only release it once all the essentials are completed. Thunkable X launched more than a year ago and is now a paid service but still it is worse than most other services are in an early Alpha stage… I see no progress in improvement of the platform - just the addition of commercial components…

If your new goal is to clutter the App-Store with crappy useless apps containing tons of ads then you might head the right way but if you want people to create GOOD apps then you’re heading in a totally wrong direction because it is not possible to create anything meaningful, impressive and helpful with X yet… Apple is quite likely going to disapprove apps built with Thunkable soon if you continue like that and they are right because the App-Store does not need useless crappy apps with no value but tons of ads in them…

I waited for months that Thunkable might finally introduce at least some of the most essential and basic components but nothing happened and now I really don’t want to continue using Thunkable anymore.

Really sad but I feel there is absolutely no progress in the right places… Also you do not care about bugs and reports and do not reply even after one sent you the files as requested - that does only make that feeling worse.

So sadly I say bye Thunkable!

[domhnallohanlon]

Hi Chris,

Sorry to hear you are so upset about Thunkable X. I’m certain that this post is coming from a good place and that you only want the best possible version of Thunkable, however I’d like to go through your message and try to identify where your main pain-points are so that we can continue to grow and improve our product.

@Chris

Thunkable X is lacking the most essential features

I don’t fully understand what you mean by this. We have 11 or 12 very commonly used UI components as well as the 3 main types of navigators to get people up and running quickly with creating their own apps.
Do you mean that there are certain properties in these components that you would like to see added in? Or are you thinking of a specific component that you need for one of your own apps.

@Chris

I see no progress in improvement of the platform

I think it would be helpful to keep an eye on the release notes and the Announcements but in the interest of clarity, since launching in June of 18 the following (visible!) additions were made

• Created the Alert Component (Jul 18)
• Added new properties to the WebViewer, Column, Map and Slider (Aug 18)
• Created the “Shuffle List” block (Aug 18)
• Created a completely new way of working with variable (Oct 18)
• Created the Top Tab Navigator and Bottom Tab Navigator (Nov 18)
• Added the ability to Publish to the App store, directly from Thunkable!! (Nov 18)
• Created the LocalDB component (Dec 18)
• Created the “Device” blocks (Dec 18)
• Added texting, calling and emailing for the share component (Dec 18)
• Reduced the size of downloaded apps by 8MB (Jan 18)
• Added a Changed listener for variable (Feb 18)
• Added AdMob components (Mar 18)
• Added Blockchain components (Mar 18)
• Added Email log in option (Mar 18)

This is without mentioning the 1000’s of updates, improvements and optimisations that happen behind the scenes. We’ve refreshed our brand, launched a project gallery, integrated with multiple payment providers, forged new business relationships, moved office, blogged, documented, videoed, collaborated, presented, tutored, supported… the list goes on and on!

There has also been enormous work done on the other components that are planned for release in 2019, which I’m personally very excited about…and in addition to this we’ve updated and upgraded the Classic platform too. I think sometime’s it can be easy to overlook that in the 9 months since X was launched we also released over 18 updates to the Classic platform too. If you’re looking for a job in tech, there’s never a dull moment at Thunkable!

if you let us know about the specific app that you are building then we will do our best to try and advise you how to realise it with the currently available set of components.

@Chris

If your new goal is to clutter the App-Store with crappy useless apps containing tons of ads then you might head the right way

As you already know, when AdMob launched for Thunkable X we created a manual review process where we go through each individual app to make sure it complies with Thunkable’s and AdMob’s guidelines. We are well aware of the apps that you are talking about and we’re investing resources every day to make sure that these types of apps aren’t made with Thunkable X.

Creators are strictly limited to 1 banner per page and 1 interstitial and 1 rewarded video per app.It might be worth pointing out that this is the maximum an app can have, not the recommended amount or the minimum amount.

@Chris

also you do not care about bugs and reports and do not reply even after one sent you the files as requested

I’ve gone through my inbox for the last 3 months and, apart from one bit of back-channel, I can’t see a single PM from you with a shared project or bug report. If I’ve overlooked it in error, please ping me and I’ll do my best to get you an answer.

We’ve spent many hours working 1-to-1 on issues from Classic in the past and you know that you can always reach out directly if you have any questions about X.

We have been pretty clear about what our 2019 development roadmap looks like, having revealed it back in October 2018, so it would be great to know what sort of apps you’re working on at the moment, what your main goals/milestones are, and how you feel that we can help you be a more successful creator.

Thanks.

[Chris]

@domhnallohanlon

I don’t fully understand what you mean by this. We have 11 or 12 very commonly used UI components as well as the 3 main types of navigators to get people up and running quickly with creating their own apps.
Do you mean that there are certain properties in these components that you would like to see added in? Or are you thinking of a specific component that you need for one of your own apps.

Well, where should I begin… There are no essential fields such as date and time picker, there is no way to add custom fonts/icons, textinput & navigators are really buggy and not capable of continuing to the next textbox, Maps component cannot even get its own coordinates on touch event, markers can’t be removed or called in a function, you can barely use any sensors, there are no push notifications, the navigators cannot be styled properly, no way to add a kind of FAB even tough that is essential in Material Design,… There are many essential features missing that would have been much more important to implement than “Payment by Stripe” or “Admob” What should people pay for or how should I make money with ads if my app is just poorly made and doesn’t have any value for the end-user…?

@domhnallohanlon

I see no progress in improvement of the platform

I think it would be helpful to keep an eye on the release notes and the Announcements but in the interest of clarity, since launching in June of 18 the following (visible!) additions were made

I did check the release notes every 1-2 weeks hoping Thunkable would finally ad one of the most needed features or fix one of the annoying bugs but barely anything happened besides the addition of unnecessary new stuff like ads, changing the starting screen logo, reducing size 8mb…

@domhnallohanlon

Creators are strictly limited to 1 banner per page and 1 interstitial and 1 rewarded video per app.It might be worth pointing out that this is the maximum an app can have, not the recommended amount or the minimum amount.

That still does not ensure quality content in the app. Nobody wants or needs “Hello World” style apps in the App Store, neither without nor with ads. Apple is pushing and enforcing quality standards for apps more and more and it’s not the first time they rejected an app because it has no overvalue and/or does not match with Apples UI/UE guidelines for apps. Once they realize tons of crap apps are created with a platform like Thunkable I am pretty sure they will blacklist apps created with Thunkable X just like they did with other drag & drop builders because they want unique apps with value for the user…

@domhnallohanlon

also you do not care about bugs and reports and do not reply even after one sent you the files as requested

I’ve gone through my inbox for the last 3 months and, apart from one bit of back-channel, I can’t see a single PM from you with a shared project or bug report. If I’ve overlooked it in error, please ping me and I’ll do my best to get you an answer.

What I meant with the issue where I should send the files was this:

Display Glitches Screen load/switch

annoying glitches even appear when editing text or just by using switches: [IMG_0621] Thunkable X has so much of an early Alpha feeling… I am really trying hard to create a neat looking app by bringing a successful project over to X but there are so many bugs, limitations,… it’s really no fun to work with

But there are many other bugs / problem reports on here and on github that do not seem to be taken care of…

@domhnallohanlon

We have been pretty clear about what our 2019 development roadmap looks like, having revealed it back in October 2018, so it would be great to know what sort of apps you’re working on at the moment, what your main goals/milestones are, and how you feel that we can help you be a more successful creator.

Most of the apps I created or want to create rely on a solid map feature. I would love to bring several of my classic apps to Thunkable X and even tried to create workarounds but I would have to make so many workarounds that the outcome quality of the app would just be bad… I tried to recreate my project Kältemeldung | Temperature alert for street workers but neither is there a possibility to add markers on touch, nor to remove markers created, nor create date/time picker and also the text boxes field move on to the next one which makes the user experience bad and they are really buggy like i posted already (link above).

So maybe you see why I think right now it is impossible to create a powerful nicely designed app with value to the user in Thunkable X… Even the sample apps are not useful at all and if you take a look at the “top community apps” they are (no offense) just crap… And those are real examples of what you are capable of creating with Thunkable X right now.

Best, Chris

[albert]

Here’s a sample app that creates a FAB-like experience. Hope this might meet that use case.

Albert

[Chris]

(The link can’t be opened) Now the link worked but if I am correct this only works with a webviewer and nothing else and therefor is unfortunately also not a suitable workaround for my projects.

[albert]

Got it. Are you thinking about a map in the background of your app or something else?

[Chris]

a map or other stuff. however a FAB workaround alone won‘t solve all the other the issues building with Thunkable X currently has

[domhnallohanlon]

Thanks Albert for taking the time to create this sample app with a FAB work-around for Chris.

@Chris

a map or other stuff

@Chris, by “other stuff” now are you referring to what you mentioned in your earlier post or is there something else you have in mind?

[Thunkable_X]

Can i make earning app throw thunkable_x and it can be approve for ads from admob or it rejected