Device types
Device Types is the AdCOM list that says what kind of hardware will show the ad: a phone, a tablet, a computer, a television, a set top box, or a digital out-of-home screen. OpenRTB carries it in Device.devicetype, and buyers use it to route requests to campaigns, creative formats, and price levels.
Values
| Value | Name | What it means |
|---|---|---|
1 | Mobile/Tablet - General | Generic mobile value from OpenRTB 2.0 for a phone or tablet when the seller cannot tell which. |
2 | Personal Computer | Desktop and laptop computers, usually browser traffic that arrives with a site object. |
3 | Connected TV | A television with built-in internet apps, and the value most CTV targeting starts from. |
4 | Phone | A phone, added in OpenRTB 2.2 as the precise alternative to 1. |
5 | Tablet | A tablet, added in OpenRTB 2.2 alongside 4. |
6 | Connected Device | Connected hardware that is not a phone, tablet, computer, or TV, such as game consoles and streaming players. |
7 | Set Top Box | A set top box, typically operator hardware from a cable, satellite, or IPTV provider. |
8 | OOH Device | A digital out-of-home screen. It is not in OpenRTB 2.5's table and comes from the AdCOM list. |
Fields that use this list
How to use it
Send the most specific value you can back up. The list started in OpenRTB 2.0 with three entries, OpenRTB 2.2 added phone, tablet, connected device, and set top box, and the OOH device value exists only in the AdCOM list that OpenRTB 2.6 references. There is no vendor range, so anything outside 1 to 8 is invalid, and RTBlint reports it as openrtb.value.invalid on 2.6 snapshots. For CTV the device type is one signal among several: buyers also look for an app object, App.bundle, and a Content object describing the program.
Common mistakes
- Deriving the value from the user agent string alone. Smart TV browsers, consoles, and some streaming players send desktop-like strings, which turns television inventory into 2.
- Sending 1 for all mobile traffic when the app SDK knows the form factor. Buyers that price phones and tablets separately are left to guess.
- Quoting the number, as in "devicetype": "3". The field is an integer, and RTBlint reports
openrtb.type.mismatch. - Sending 8 with a
siteorappobject. Since 2.6-202211 out-of-home screens are described byBidRequest.dooh, and buyers' DOOH logic looks for that object as well as the device type.
Validation
On OpenRTB 2.6 snapshots, RTBlint reports a value outside this list as openrtb.value.invalid. Paste a request into the tester to check the values you send.
Related lists
All lists are on the enumerated lists index.