In this article, I am going to talk about Firebase and the services that it provides. So, let's first talk about the most raised question - what is it?
What is Firebase?
Firebase is a BaaS, i.e., Backend as a Service. We can call it a real-time database which is the best feature of it. By using the API given by Firebase, the web developers and mobile developers can build high-quality apps.
Why is it called real-time?
Because of the API given by Firebase which helps us to store and sync our data across different clients.
Firebase Services
Firebase Realtime Database
It is a cloud hosted database which allows us to store and sync the data across clients in real time. For more details, just see the video.
Firebase Authentication
It provides Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and GitHub authentication along with simple email login and password.
Firebase Storage Service
Yes, Firebase provides storage services; that means we can upload and download the data from anywhere. Firebase Storage SDK allows us to store the files and share with anyone. Now, the next question that arises is the security of files. So, for that, don’t worry! The Firebase Storage SDK works with Firebase authentication. Yes, it means you can make files private or public, and limitation on access of files. Just see the below video for more clarification.
Firebase Cloud messaging
Firebase can send messages to a single user, a group of users, or even a topic. Watch the video for more details.
Firebase Notifications
Yes, for notification, the Firebase notification console takes care of this. Notifications can be sent such as cloud messaging.
Consider that you have found a bug in your app and you want to resolve it without asking the client to download the update. Here, Firebase remote config comes to the picture. See the below video.
Firebase Lab Testing For Android
Actually, this is a special one only for Android developers to test their app and to make sure that it is running perfectly on every device. See the video below.
We never want our application to stop working. So, Firebase provides crash reports with detailed analysis of applications along with a stack trace of errors. See the video.
Dynamic Links
Deep linking or dynamic links is just a transfer from one point to another. You can control the behavior of dynamic links, like whether the user has installed your app or not. It can handle the situation while user installs your app and it will take the user right back where it left. See the video.
It provides the service of sharing the content or referral code to some of your colleagues, then firebase invites make sure that your user gets the shared content. Because of deep linking, it will lead the user to particular web pages or to the Playstore if the user doesn’t have the app installed. So, it is easy to promote the app with Firebase invites. See the video.
If you want to know how many users visit your application or how many users click on the link for your mobile apps then Firebase analytics is there to take care of everything. Actually Firebase analytics provides three things.
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Effectiveness of your advertising
User Behavior
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Rash reporting and fixing
The main reason behind this is the SDK captures all the necessary data and once it is done it is available in the Firebase console. See the video for more details.
AdMob & AdWords
Yes, now AdMob and AdWords are integrated with Firebase and you can earn money by using ads provided by Google advertisers. From the Firebase console you can customize the audience and watch the growth of your application. This is also explained in the above video of Firebase Analytics.
Firebase App Indexing
If our site and our app has the same content then we can associate both and Google search index URLs which work for both versions. Therefore the link of our website and mobile application icon both will be shown in search results. See the video below.
Summary
So, this is the basic information that is required to understand what Firebase is and what it provides. Thanks for giving your precious time and please share your feedback with me so that I can improve it more.