MRAID (Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions) is an IAB Tech Lab standard JavaScript API that enables interactive HTML5 ads to run inside mobile app webviews. The MRAID JS library is hosted by the ad-network SDK and exposed to the creative; the creative calls MRAID methods to expand to fullscreen, resize, play video, query screen size, fire viewability events, etc. The SDK handles the platform-specific implementation; the creative author writes against the standardized MRAID API.
What MRAID enables
- Expandable ads: the creative starts at a small placement and can expand to fullscreen on user interaction (`mraid.expand()`).
- Resizable ads: similar to expandable but with explicit size control.
- Interactive video: HTML5 video playback inside the ad, with quartile tracking.
- Device capability access: location (with permission), accelerometer, camera (with permission), storage events.
- Viewability events: standardized impression / viewable / 50%-visible / 1-second beacons.
MRAID versions: - MRAID 1.0 (2011): the foundational version. Largely deprecated. - MRAID 2.0 (2012): adds video, audio, storage events, calendar / contact API. - MRAID 3.0 (2018): adds OMID viewability integration, video improvements, more granular event tracking. Currently widely deployed. Most mobile ad SDKs (AppLovin, ironSource, Vungle, Mintegral, Google Mobile Ads) ship with MRAID 3 support and backward compatibility for MRAID 2.
Why it matters: without MRAID, every interactive mobile ad creative would need custom code per app SDK. With MRAID, creative agencies build one HTML5 ad and it runs across any MRAID-compliant SDK / app. Foundational to the mobile rich-media ad ecosystem.