Correctly disable AdMob ads

In your layout file (eg, main.xml) :

<LinearLayout     android:layout_width="wrap_content"     android:layout_height="wrap_content"     android:id="@+id/adsContainer">    <com.admob.android.ads.AdView         android:id="@+id/admobAds"         android:layout_width="fill_parent"         android:layout_height="fill_parent"         app:backgroundColor="#000000"         app:primaryTextColor="#FFFFFF"         app:secondaryTextColor="#CCCCCC"></LinearLayout>

Then in your code (eg, inside a "if" block)

(LinearLayout) adscontainer = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.adsContainer);View admobAds = (View) findViewById(R.id.admobAds);adscontainer.removeView(admobAds);

This will "permanently" (for the lifecycle of the app) remove the ads from the layou, which means that there will not be any ads requested.

I also wanted to give users the ability to disable ads - why force people to see them if they don't want to? and why should you expect people to pay for that option?

Anyway, I outlined how I did this in this article. The article goes into more detail but here's the relevant parts:

The code i use to turn off ads:

private void hideAd() {    final AdView adLayout = (AdView) findViewById(R.id.adView1);    runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {        @Override        public void run() {            adLayout.setEnabled(false);            adLayout.setVisibility(View.GONE);        }    });}

And to turn them back on (in case anyone was feeling generous)

private void showAd() {    final AdView adLayout = (AdView) findViewById(R.id.adView1);    runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {        @Override        public void run() {            adLayout.setEnabled(true);            adLayout.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);            adLayout.loadAd(new AdRequest());        }    });}

Unfortunately the setVisibility(View.GONE); + setEnabled(false) combo does not work universally on all android versions / devices. Depending on when do you invoke it you may end up hanged in empty screen (no NPE, just blank screen).

So far the only solution that works for me is:

For Activity:

protected void removeAdView(int adViewId) {    View view = getWindow().getDecorView();    View adView = view.findViewById(adViewId);    if (adView != null) {        ViewGroup parent = (ViewGroup) adView.getParent();        parent.removeView(adView);        parent.invalidate();    }}

For Fragment:

protected void removeAdView(View topView, int adViewId) {    View adView = topView.findViewById(adViewId);    if (adView != null) {        ViewGroup parent = (ViewGroup) adView.getParent();        parent.removeView(adView);        parent.invalidate();    }}

This solution is based on @Quartertone's answer but extended to be more universal (i.e. works with all ViewGroups not just LinearLayout). Just put these methods in your base Activity/Fragment classes.