Engage SDK Watch: Third-party technical integration instructions

Google is building an on-device surface that organizes users' apps by verticals and enables a new immersive experience for personalized app content consumption and discovery. This fullscreen experience provides developer partners with an opportunity to showcase their best rich content in a dedicated channel outside of their app.

This guide contains instructions for developer partners to integrate their video content, using the Engage SDK to populate both this new surface area and existing Google surfaces.

Integration detail

Terminology

This integration includes the following three cluster types: Recommendation, Continuation, and Featured.

• Recommendation clusters show personalized suggestions for content to watch from an individual developer partner.

  Your recommendations take the following structure:

  • Recommendation Cluster: A UI view that contains a group of recommendations from the same developer partner.

    

  • Entity: An object representing a single item in a cluster. An entity can be a movie, a TV show, a TV series, live video, and more. See the Provide entity data section for a list of supported entity types.

    

• The Continuation cluster shows unfinished videos and relevant newly released episodes from multiple developer partners in one UI grouping. Each developer partner will be allowed to broadcast a maximum of 10 entities in the Continuation cluster. Research has shown that personalized recommendations along with personalized Continuation content creates the best user engagement.

  

• The Featured cluster showcases a selection of entities from multiple developer partners in one UI grouping. There will be a single Featured cluster, which is surfaced near the top of the UI with a priority placement above all Recommendation clusters. Each developer partner will be allowed to broadcast up to 10 entities in the Featured cluster.

  

Pre-work

Minimum API level: 19

Add the com.google.android.engage:engage-core library to your app:

dependencies {
    // Make sure you also include that repository in your project's build.gradle file.
    implementation 'com.google.android.engage:engage-core:1.5.2'
}

For more information, see Package visibility in Android 11.

Summary

The design is based on an implementation of a bound service.

The data a client can publish is subject to the following limits for different cluster types:

Step 0: Migration from existing Media Home SDK integration

Map data models from existing integration

If you are migrating from an existing Media Home integration, the following table outlines how to map data models in existing SDKs to the new Engage SDK:

Publishing clusters in Media Home SDK vs Engage SDK

With Media Home SDK, clusters and entities were published through separate APIs:

// 1. Fetch existing channels
List<PreviewChannel> channels = PreviewChannelHelper.getAllChannels();

// 2. If there are no channels, publish new channels
long channelId = PreviewChannelHelper.publishChannel(builder.build());

// 3. If there are existing channels, decide whether to update channel contents
PreviewChannelHelper.updatePreviewChannel(channelId, builder.build());

// 4. Delete all programs in the channel
PreviewChannelHelper.deleteAllPreviewProgramsByChannelId(channelId);

// 5. publish new programs in the channel
PreviewChannelHelper.publishPreviewProgram(builder.build());

With Engage SDK, cluster and entity publishing are combined into a single API call. All entities that belong to a cluster are published together with that cluster:

RecommendationCluster.Builder()
            .addEntity(MOVIE_ENTITY)
            .addEntity(MOVIE_ENTITY)
            .addEntity(MOVIE_ENTITY)
            .setTitle("Top Picks For You")
            .build()

new RecommendationCluster.Builder()
                        .addEntity(MOVIE_ENTITY)
                        .addEntity(MOVIE_ENTITY)
                        .addEntity(MOVIE_ENTITY)
                        .setTitle("Top Picks For You")
                        .build();

Step 1: Provide entity data

The SDK has defined different entities to represent each item type. We support the following entities for the Watch category:

1. MovieEntity
2. TvShowEntity
3. TvSeasonEntity
4. TvEpisodeEntity
5. LiveStreamingVideoEntity
6. VideoClipEntity

The following chart outlines attributes and requirements for each type.

MovieEntity

TvShowEntity

TvSeasonEntity

TvEpisodeEntity

LiveStreamingVideoEntity

VideoClipEntity

The VideoClipEntity object represents a video entity coming from social media, such as TikTok or YouTube.

Image specifications

The following section lists the required specifications for image assets:

File formats

PNG, JPG, static GIF, WebP

Maximum file size

5120 KB

Additional recommendations

• Image safe area: Put your important content in the center 80% of the image.

Example

var movie = MovieEntity.Builder()
    .setName("Avengers")
    .addPosterImage(Image.Builder()
                          .setImageUri(Uri.parse("http://www.x.com/image.png"))
                          .setImageHeightInPixel(960)
                          .setImageWidthInPixel(408)
                          .build())
    .setPlayBackUri(Uri.parse("http://tv.com/playback/1"))
    .setReleaseDateEpochMillis(1633032895L)
    .setAvailability(ContentAvailability.AVAILABILITY_AVAILABLE)
    .setDurationMillis(12345678L)
    .addGenre("action")
    .addContentRating("R")
    .setWatchNextType(WatchNextType.TYPE_NEW)
    .setLastEngagementTimeMillis(1664568895L)
    .build()

MovieEntity movie = new MovieEntity.Builder()
                  .setName("Avengers")
                  .addPosterImage(
                      new Image.Builder()
                          .setImageUri(Uri.parse("http://www.x.com/image.png"))
                          .setImageHeightInPixel(960)
                          .setImageWidthInPixel(408)
                          .build())
                  .setPlayBackUri(Uri.parse("http://tv.com/playback/1"))
                  .setReleaseDateEpochMillis(1633032895L)
                  .setAvailability(ContentAvailability.AVAILABILITY_AVAILABLE)
                  .setDurationMillis(12345678L)
                  .addGenre("action")
                  .addContentRating("R")
                  .setWatchNextType(WatchNextType.TYPE_NEW)
                  .setLastEngagementTimeMillis(1664568895L)
                  .build();

Step 2: Provide Cluster data

It's recommended to have the content publish job executed in the background (for example, using WorkManager) and scheduled on a regular basis or on an event basis (for example, every time the user opens the app or when the user just added something to their cart).

AppEngagePublishClient is responsible for publishing clusters. Following APIs are available in the client:

• isServiceAvailable
• publishRecommendationClusters
• publishFeaturedCluster
• publishContinuationCluster
• publishUserAccountManagementRequest
• updatePublishStatus
• deleteRecommendationsClusters
• deleteFeaturedCluster
• deleteContinuationCluster
• deleteUserManagementCluster
• deleteClusters

isServiceAvailable

This API is used to check if the service is available for integration and whether the content can be presented on the device.

client.isServiceAvailable.addOnCompleteListener { task ->
    if (task.isSuccessful) {
        // Handle IPC call success
        if(task.result) {
          // Service is available on the device, proceed with content publish
          // calls.
        } else {
          // Service is not available, no further action is needed.
        }
    } else {
      // The IPC call itself fails, proceed with error handling logic here,
      // such as retry.
    }
}

client.isServiceAvailable().addOnCompleteListener(task - > {
    if (task.isSuccessful()) {
        // Handle success
        if(task.getResult()) {
          // Service is available on the device, proceed with content publish
          // calls.
        } else {
          // Service is not available, no further action is needed.
        }
    } else {
      // The IPC call itself fails, proceed with error handling logic here,
      // such as retry.
    }
});

publishRecommendationClusters

This API is used to publish a list of RecommendationCluster objects.

client.publishRecommendationClusters(
      PublishRecommendationClustersRequest.Builder()
        .addRecommendationCluster(
          RecommendationCluster.Builder()
            .addEntity(entity1)
            .addEntity(entity2)
            .setTitle("Top Picks For You")
            .build()
        )
        .build()
    )

client.publishRecommendationClusters(
            new PublishRecommendationClustersRequest.Builder()
                .addRecommendationCluster(
                    new RecommendationCluster.Builder()
                        .addEntity(entity1)
                        .addEntity(entity2)
                        .setTitle("Top Picks For You")
                        .build())
                .build());

When the service receives the request, the following actions take place within one transaction:

• Existing RecommendationCluster data from the developer partner is removed.
• Data from the request is parsed and stored in the updated Recommendation Cluster.

In case of an error, the entire request is rejected and the existing state is maintained.

publishFeaturedCluster

This API is used to publish a list of FeaturedCluster objects.

client.publishFeaturedCluster(
    PublishFeaturedClusterRequest.Builder()
      .setFeaturedCluster(
        FeaturedCluster.Builder()
          .addEntity(entity1)
          .addEntity(entity2)
          .build())
      .build())

client.publishFeaturedCluster(
            new PublishFeaturedClustersRequest.Builder()
                .addFeaturedCluster(
                    new FeaturedCluster.Builder()
                        .addEntity(entity1)
                        .addEntity(entity2)
                        .build())
                .build());

When the service receives the request, the following actions take place within one transaction:

• Existing FeaturedCluster data from the developer partner is removed.
• Data from the request is parsed and stored in the updated Featured Cluster.

In case of an error, the entire request is rejected and the existing state is maintained.

publishContinuationCluster

This API is used to publish a ContinuationCluster object.

client.publishContinuationCluster(
    PublishContinuationClusterRequest.Builder()
      .setContinuationCluster(
        ContinuationCluster.Builder()
          .addEntity(entity1)
          .addEntity(entity2)
          .build())
      .build())

client.publishContinuationCluster(
            new PublishContinuationClusterRequest.Builder()
                .setContinuationCluster(
                    new ContinuationCluster.Builder()
                        .addEntity(entity1)
                        .addEntity(entity2)
                        .build())
                .build());

When the service receives the request, the following actions take place within one transaction:

• Existing ContinuationCluster data from the developer partner is removed.
• Data from the request is parsed and stored in the updated Continuation Cluster.

In case of an error, the entire request is rejected and the existing state is maintained.

publishUserAccountManagementRequest

This API is used to publish a Sign In card . The signin action directs users to the app's sign in page so that the app can publish content (or provide more personalized content)

The following metadata is part of the Sign In Card -

var SIGN_IN_CARD_ENTITY =
      SignInCardEntity.Builder()
          .addPosterImage(
              Image.Builder()
                  .setImageUri(Uri.parse("http://www.x.com/image.png"))
                  .setImageHeightInPixel(500)
                  .setImageWidthInPixel(500)
                  .build())
          .setActionText("Sign In")
          .setActionUri(Uri.parse("http://xx.com/signin"))
          .build()

client.publishUserAccountManagementRequest(
            PublishUserAccountManagementRequest.Builder()
                .setSignInCardEntity(SIGN_IN_CARD_ENTITY)
                .build());

SignInCardEntity SIGN_IN_CARD_ENTITY =
      new SignInCardEntity.Builder()
          .addPosterImage(
              new Image.Builder()
                  .setImageUri(Uri.parse("http://www.x.com/image.png"))
                  .setImageHeightInPixel(500)
                  .setImageWidthInPixel(500)
                  .build())
          .setActionText("Sign In")
          .setActionUri(Uri.parse("http://xx.com/signin"))
          .build();

client.publishUserAccountManagementRequest(
            new PublishUserAccountManagementRequest.Builder()
                .setSignInCardEntity(SIGN_IN_CARD_ENTITY)
                .build());

When the service receives the request, the following actions take place within one transaction:

• Existing UserAccountManagementCluster data from the developer partner is removed.
• Data from the request is parsed and stored in the updated UserAccountManagementCluster Cluster.

In case of an error, the entire request is rejected and the existing state is maintained.

updatePublishStatus

If for any internal business reason, none of the clusters is published, we strongly recommend updating the publish status using the updatePublishStatus API. This is important because :

• Providing the status in all scenarios, even when the content is published (STATUS == PUBLISHED), is critical to populate dashboards that use this explicit status to convey the health and other metrics of your integration.
• If no content is published but the integration status isn't broken (STATUS == NOT_PUBLISHED), Google can avoid triggering alerts in the app health dashboards. It confirms that content is not published due to an expected situation from the provider's standpoint.
• It helps developers provide insights into when the data is published versus not.
• Google may use the status codes to nudge the user to do certain actions in the app so they can see the app content or overcome it.

The list of eligible publish status codes are :

// Content is published
AppEngagePublishStatusCode.PUBLISHED,

// Content is not published as user is not signed in
AppEngagePublishStatusCode.NOT_PUBLISHED_REQUIRES_SIGN_IN,

// Content is not published as user is not subscribed
AppEngagePublishStatusCode.NOT_PUBLISHED_REQUIRES_SUBSCRIPTION,

// Content is not published as user location is ineligible
AppEngagePublishStatusCode.NOT_PUBLISHED_INELIGIBLE_LOCATION,

// Content is not published as there is no eligible content
AppEngagePublishStatusCode.NOT_PUBLISHED_NO_ELIGIBLE_CONTENT,

// Content is not published as the feature is disabled by the client
// Available in v1.3.1
AppEngagePublishStatusCode.NOT_PUBLISHED_FEATURE_DISABLED_BY_CLIENT,

// Content is not published as the feature due to a client error
// Available in v1.3.1
AppEngagePublishStatusCode.NOT_PUBLISHED_CLIENT_ERROR,

// Content is not published as the feature due to a service error
// Available in v1.3.1
AppEngagePublishStatusCode.NOT_PUBLISHED_SERVICE_ERROR,

// Content is not published due to some other reason
// Reach out to engage-developers@ before using this enum.
AppEngagePublishStatusCode.NOT_PUBLISHED_OTHER

If the content is not published due to a user not logged in, Google would recommend publishing the Sign In Card. If for any reason providers are not able to publish the Sign In Card then we recommend calling the updatePublishStatus API with the status code NOT_PUBLISHED_REQUIRES_SIGN_IN

client.updatePublishStatus(
   PublishStatusRequest.Builder()
     .setStatusCode(AppEngagePublishStatusCode.NOT_PUBLISHED_REQUIRES_SIGN_IN)
     .build())

client.updatePublishStatus(
    new PublishStatusRequest.Builder()
        .setStatusCode(AppEngagePublishStatusCode.NOT_PUBLISHED_REQUIRES_SIGN_IN)
        .build());

deleteRecommendationClusters

This API is used to delete the content of Recommendation Clusters.

client.deleteRecommendationClusters()

client.deleteRecommendationClusters();

When the service receives the request, it removes the existing data from the Recommendation Clusters. In case of an error, the entire request is rejected and the existing state is maintained.

deleteFeaturedCluster

This API is used to delete the content of Featured Cluster.

client.deleteFeaturedCluster()

client.deleteFeaturedCluster();

When the service receives the request, it removes the existing data from the Featured Cluster. In case of an error, the entire request is rejected and the existing state is maintained.

deleteContinuationCluster

This API is used to delete the content of Continuation Cluster.

client.deleteContinuationCluster()

client.deleteContinuationCluster();

When the service receives the request, it removes the existing data from the Continuation Cluster. In case of an error, the entire request is rejected and the existing state is maintained.

deleteUserManagementCluster

This API is used to delete the content of UserAccountManagement Cluster.

client.deleteUserManagementCluster()

client.deleteUserManagementCluster();

When the service receives the request, it removes the existing data from the UserAccountManagement Cluster. In case of an error, the entire request is rejected and the existing state is maintained.

deleteClusters

This API is used to delete the content of a given cluster type.

client.deleteClusters(
    DeleteClustersRequest.Builder()
      .addClusterType(ClusterType.TYPE_CONTINUATION)
      .addClusterType(ClusterType.TYPE_FEATURED)
      .addClusterType(ClusterType.TYPE_RECOMMENDATION)
      .build())

client.deleteClusters(
            new DeleteClustersRequest.Builder()
                .addClusterType(ClusterType.TYPE_CONTINUATION)
                .addClusterType(ClusterType.TYPE_FEATURED)
                .addClusterType(ClusterType.TYPE_RECOMMENDATION)
                .build());

When the service receives the request, it removes the existing data from all clusters matching the specified cluster types. Clients can choose to pass one or many cluster types. In case of an error, the entire request is rejected and the existing state is maintained.

Error handling

It is highly recommended to listen to the task result from the publish APIs such that a follow-up action can be taken to recover and resubmit an successful task.

client.publishRecommendationClusters(
        PublishRecommendationClustersRequest.Builder()
          .addRecommendationCluster(..)
          .build())
      .addOnCompleteListener { task ->
        if (task.isSuccessful) {
          // do something
        } else {
          val exception = task.exception
          if (exception is AppEngageException) {
            @AppEngageErrorCode val errorCode = exception.errorCode
            if (errorCode == AppEngageErrorCode.SERVICE_NOT_FOUND) {
              // do something
            }
          }
        }
      }

client.publishRecommendationClusters(
              new PublishRecommendationClustersRequest.Builder()
                  .addRecommendationCluster(...)
                  .build())
          .addOnCompleteListener(
              task -> {
                if (task.isSuccessful()) {
                  // do something
                } else {
                  Exception exception = task.getException();
                  if (exception instanceof AppEngageException) {
                    @AppEngageErrorCode
                    int errorCode = ((AppEngageException) exception).getErrorCode();
                    if (errorCode == AppEngageErrorCode.SERVICE_NOT_FOUND) {
                      // do something
                    }
                  }
                }
              });

The error is returned as an AppEngageException with the cause included as an error code.

Step 3: Handle broadcast intents

In addition to making publish content API calls through a job, it is also required to set up a BroadcastReceiver to receive the request for a content publish.

The goal of broadcast intents is mainly for app reactivation and forcing data sync. Broadcast intents are not designed to be sent very frequently. It is only triggered when the Engage Service determines the content might be stale (for example, a week old). That way, there is more confidence that the user can have a fresh content experience, even if the application has not been executed for a long period of time.

The BroadcastReceiver must be set up in the following two ways:

• Dynamically register an instance of the BroadcastReceiver class using Context.registerReceiver(). This enables communication from applications that are still live in memory.

class AppEngageBroadcastReceiver : BroadcastReceiver(){
  // Trigger recommendation cluster publish when PUBLISH_RECOMMENDATION broadcast
  // is received
  // Trigger featured cluster publish when PUBLISH_FEATURED broadcast is received
  // Trigger continuation cluster publish when PUBLISH_CONTINUATION broadcast is
  // received
}

fun registerBroadcastReceivers(context: Context){
  var  context = context
  context = context.applicationContext

// Register Recommendation Cluster Publish Intent
  context.registerReceiver(AppEngageBroadcastReceiver(),
                           IntentFilter(Intents.ACTION_PUBLISH_RECOMMENDATION))

// Register Featured Cluster Publish Intent
  context.registerReceiver(AppEngageBroadcastReceiver(),
                           IntentFilter(Intents.ACTION_PUBLISH_FEATURED))

// Register Continuation Cluster Publish Intent
  context.registerReceiver(AppEngageBroadcastReceiver(),
                           IntentFilter(Intents.ACTION_PUBLISH_CONTINUATION))
}

class AppEngageBroadcastReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
// Trigger recommendation cluster publish when PUBLISH_RECOMMENDATION broadcast
// is received

// Trigger featured cluster publish when PUBLISH_FEATURED broadcast is received

// Trigger continuation cluster publish when PUBLISH_CONTINUATION broadcast is
// received
}

public static void registerBroadcastReceivers(Context context) {

context = context.getApplicationContext();

// Register Recommendation Cluster Publish Intent
context.registerReceiver(new AppEngageBroadcastReceiver(),
new IntentFilter(com.google.android.engage.service.Intents.ACTION_PUBLISH_RECOMMENDATION));

// Register Featured Cluster Publish Intent
context.registerReceiver(new AppEngageBroadcastReceiver(),
new IntentFilter(com.google.android.engage.service.Intents.ACTION_PUBLISH_FEATURED));

// Register Continuation Cluster Publish Intent
context.registerReceiver(new AppEngageBroadcastReceiver(),
new IntentFilter(com.google.android.engage.service.Intents.ACTION_PUBLISH_CONTINUATION));

}

• Statically declare an implementation with the <receiver> tag in your AndroidManifest.xml file. This allows the application to receive broadcast intents when it is not running, and also allows the application to publish the content.

<application>
   <receiver
      android:name=".AppEngageBroadcastReceiver"
      android:exported="true"
      android:enabled="true">
      <intent-filter>
         <action android:name="com.google.android.engage.action.PUBLISH_RECOMMENDATION" />
      </intent-filter>
      <intent-filter>
         <action android:name="com.google.android.engage.action.PUBLISH_FEATURED" />
      </intent-filter>
      <intent-filter>
         <action android:name="com.google.android.engage.action.PUBLISH_CONTINUATION" />
      </intent-filter>
   </receiver>
</application>

The following intents is sent by the service:

• com.google.android.engage.action.PUBLISH_RECOMMENDATION It is recommended to start a publishRecommendationClusters call when receiving this intent.
• com.google.android.engage.action.PUBLISH_FEATURED It is recommended to start a publishFeaturedCluster call when receiving this intent.
• com.google.android.engage.action.PUBLISH_CONTINUATION It is recommended to start a publishContinuationCluster call when receiving this intent.

Integration workflow

For a step-by-step guide on verifying your integration after it is complete, see Engage developer integration workflow.

FAQs

See Engage SDK Frequently Asked Questions for FAQs.

Contact

Contact engage-developers@google.com if there are any questions during the integration process.

Next steps

After completing this integration, your next steps are as follows:

• Send an email to engage-developers@google.com and attach your integrated APK that is ready for testing by Google.
• Google performs a verification and reviews internally to make sure the integration works as expected. If changes are needed, Google contacts you with any necessary details.
• When testing is complete and no changes are needed, Google contacts you to notify you that you can start publishing the updated and integrated APK to the Play Store.
• After Google has confirmed that your updated APK has been published to the Play Store, your Recommendation, Featured, and Continuation clusters may be published and visible to users.