Glossary
VPAID
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VPAID, the Video Player-Ad Interface Definition, is a deprecated IAB Tech Lab standard that let a video ad run its own code inside the player, to add interactivity and to collect measurement data.
VPAID let an ad behave like a small application. The player loaded an executable ad unit, and the two talked through a common interface to start, pause, resize and report interactions. Advertisers used it for interactive overlays and, more often, to carry verification scripts that measured viewability and fraud.
That power caused problems. A VPAID ad controlled playback, so heavy or faulty code could delay the content, drain phone batteries or crash the player. It could not run in server-side stitched streams, where no ad code runs on the device. And it mixed two jobs, interactivity and measurement, in one opaque unit.
IAB Tech Lab deprecated VPAID and split its two jobs. The Secure Interactive Media Interface Definition (SIMID) now handles interactivity, and the Open Measurement Interface Definition (OMID) handles verification (IAB Tech Lab, accessed 9 November 2026). VAST 4.2, released in June 2019, brought in SIMID as the replacement for VPAID in interactive use cases (IAB Tech Lab, VAST).
Example: A brand that once wrapped its MP4 in a VPAID tag so a vendor could measure viewability now serves the plain MP4 in a VAST 4.2 response. It adds an Open Measurement verification script in the response's verification section, and uses a SIMID overlay only when it needs interactivity.