Why Firebase Is The Best Choice For Building Apps Quickly?
“App Success made simple” is the motto of Firebase, which is one of the most developing platforms, now offering a variety of services making the tedious process of app making easier and manageable, in return offering options for revenue.
What is it?
Owned by Google, it is a Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaas), medium that offers a way to link the web and mobile applications to the backend cloud storage and backend APIs with features like push notifications, integration with the cloud storage, user management, and social networks. In short, it manages all the factors that come along with a mobile app.
What makes Firebase famous and one of The Best platforms for any app?
1. Machine Learning
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The buzzword among all, which is taken care of, by Firebase to stay updated and get the latest technology.
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It comes with a beta version of the Machine Learning kit which can be used in any device- web, Android, and iOS.
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It can be integrated with mobile apps and used for applications like barcode scanning, image labelling, location recognizing etc.
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It provides in-device and Cloud APIs
2. Hosting & Authentication
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It helps with customised domain support with SSL(Security Socket Layer) certificate ideas and Global CDN ( Content Delivery Network) in just one command.
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It has simple to use SDKs.
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It permits authentication using multiple sign-ins through username, email-ids, phone authentication, Google, Facebook, Twitter etc.
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It sign-in is secure, as it is provided by none other than Google itself.
3. Performance
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Helps to create customized performance in traces to understand it in a better manner.
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It takes care of the network ups and downs while one can concentrate on work.
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Response time for each request, success rates, payload sizes and time spent for the payload requests can be monitored seamlessly.
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It can be broken down into various dimensions and categories to understand an issue better.
4. Notifications
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Every important update and other notifications are delivered to the developer, which is useful to take care of.
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Customized priorities can be set for each notification, which would make the work easier.
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A unique feature - Firebase cloud messaging helps in tracking and analysing which used Firebase analytics and enabling an efficient connection between server and devices, which may be web, Android, iOS anything.
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Easy A/B testing for sending push notifications and see which works best.
5. Crash Reports
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Firebase Crashlytics, the unique system to detect and work on crashes and bugs proves very much useful so that the developers can concentrate on the development part and leave the hassles of crashes occurring.
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It finds the root cause of the issue, through its unique methods finding the reason of crash occurrence and providing insight, on which further development can be done.
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Real-time crash reports make it easy to work on the issues at the same time.
6. Google Analytics
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Finally, the purpose of any app is to generate business. After the performance issues are resolved, the app needs to work upon and let the app owner know what is happening,.
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It collects data from all devices iOS, Android Apps etc and provides better insights about the performance of app, results of in-app purchase data etc.
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It integrates with the ad networks to provide clearer idea about app campaign performance.
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Customisation and filtering related to the app audiences can be done, in order to observe them which can be then combined with A/B testing and Google Ads Marketing.
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Provides integration with Admob.
7. Real-Time database
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The Firebase database is a no SQL database that allows to store, share and sync JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) data between the servers and users in real-time.
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With the help of a real-time database, there won’t be a need to build one’s own database or API as the framework will take care and manage it all.
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Apps can be built without any servers with the help of real-time mobile and web SDKs.
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Even if the user is offline, the real-time database stores local cache and stores information and retrieves it when online and synchronizes.
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It works with the Firebase authentication to provide added security to the developers.
8. Storage
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Cloud storage provides easy storage and retrieval of data like photos and videos regardless of the network connectivity.
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Any app in the starting stage would not having a lot of data to be stored, but as it becomes popular, it needs fast storage and large capacity for it, which is already taken care of by Firebase, so that there is no issue in-between working.
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It takes care of the user’s mobile connectivity and accordingly uploads SDKs, pauses and resumes when the connectivity is not very good, thus saving bandwidth of the user.
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Like the other features, it combines with Firebase authentication to provide added security to the developers.
9. Test Lab
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One of the unique features of Google Firebase is the ‘test lab’ which enables developers to test their apps in physical and virtual device with the suitable environment to simulate the results of working.
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This helps the user, not to become a lab rat, and become a part of the many issues which may arise during testing.
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Test Lab result consists of videos, images, logs, etc. that are available in your project in the Firebase console.
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It integrates with the present workflow of the developer, irrespective of them working on web or on Android studio whatsoever.
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It constantly looks for crash reports in the app, reports it and sends screenshots even if the test code for it is not provided.
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The test reports are provided in the form of logs, screenshots, videos to start working on it as soon as possible.
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One of the best working examples of using Firebase test lab was for American Express, who retired most of their test labs and worked on Firebase’s test lab, thus saving their time and effort and shifting their focus to developing new features.
Conclusion
Google’s acquisition of Firebase was to bring more value, more worth to the capabilities of Firebase. Also, the features shared in detail above are just a few yet the most important ones. The list of Firebase features and benefits does not end here.
Firebase is one of the most important platforms to build smarter applications and its features prove it better.
