I’m having trouble with integrating AdMob in my React Native app. After initializing AdMob, the Android app crashes.
The initialization appears to be successful ( from console log ), but then the app crashes on Android devices.

Code:

import React, { useRef } from 'react';
import { View, Platform } from 'react-native';
import mobileAds, { BannerAd, BannerAdSize, TestIds, useForeground } from 'react-native-google-mobile-ads';

const adUnitId = __DEV__ ? TestIds.BANNER : process.env.BANNER_AD_UNIT_ID || '';

function App() {
    const [loaded, setLoaded] = React.useState(false);
    const bannerRef = useRef<BannerAd>(null);

    React.useEffect(() => {
        mobileAds().initialize()
            .then(() => {
                setLoaded(true);
                console.log('AdMob initialized successfully');
            })
            .catch((error) => console.error('AdMob initialization error:', error));
    }, []);

    // Only use useForeground for iOS
    React.useEffect(() => {
        if (Platform.OS === 'ios') {
            useForeground(() => {
                bannerRef.current?.load();
            });
        }
    }, []);

    if (!loaded) return null;
    if (!adUnitId) {
        console.log('Ad Unit ID is not set');
        return null;
    }

    return (
        <View style={{ height: 50 }}>
            <BannerAd
                ref={bannerRef}
                unitId={adUnitId}
                size={BannerAdSize.BANNER}
            />
        </View>
    );
}

export default App;

I have correctly configured android_app_id in app.json.
I have also set the environment variable BANNER_AD_UNIT_ID correctly.
Logcat shows “AdMob initialized successfully” but then the app crashes.