How to protect the AdMob App ID in Android manifest?

Question

To add AdMob to an Android application, the following is required in the manifest:

android:name="com.google.android.gms.ads.APPLICATION_ID" android:value="YOUR_ADMOB_APP_ID"

Is there any way to protect YOUR_ADMOB_APP_ID from being visible as plain text here? It is exposed in the release apk-file with just a use of an archiver

Answer 1

Good question. Yes AdMob app id can be easily visible to people with basic computer knowledge.

But why concern? It is only a key and not a password to steal your information in AdMob. Do you expect a hacker to use this key in his app, just for the purpose of increasing your AdMob income?

Answer 2

Try encrypting your Id string using Cipher .

Check this answer for detailed implemetation.

When someone decompiles your code, they only see encrypted string. There is a private key that you must keep for yourself only.