Firebase

History

Firebase evolved from Envolve, a prior startup founded by Tamplin and Lee in 2011. Envolve provided developers an API that let them integrate online chat into their websites. After releasing the chat service, Tamplin and Lee found that the service was being used to pass application data that wasn't chat messages. Developers were using Envolve to sync application data such as game state in realtime across their users. Tamplin and Lee decided to separate the chat system and the real-time architecture that powered it, founding Firebase as a separate company in April 2012. Firebase raised $1.4 million in seed funding in May 2012 from Flybridge Capital Partners, Greylock Partners, NEA and others. The company raised $5.6 million in Series A funding from Union Square Ventures and Flybridge Capital Partners in June 2013. On 21 October 2014, Firebase announced it had been acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount. On October 13, 2015 Google acquired Divshot to merge it with Firebase team, for an undisclosed amount. Before the acquisition, Divshot had raised $1.18 million in two rounds of funding, according to TechCrunch. Since the acquisition Firebase has grown inside Google and expanded their services to become a unified platform for mobile developers. Firebase now integrates with various other Google services to offer broader products and scale for developers. The vision of Firebase stays the same and aim to help developers build better apps and grow successful businesses.

On January 18, 2017, Google announced that it signed an agreement to acquire Fabric and Crashlytics from Twitter, and that those services would join the Firebase team.

Firebase Analytics

Firebase Analytics is a free app measurement solution that provides insight into app usage and user engagement.

Firebase Cloud Messaging

Formerly known as Google Cloud Messaging (GCM), Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) is a cross-platform solution for messages and notifications for Android, iOS, and web applications, which currently can be used at no cost.

Firebase Auth

Firebase Auth is a service that can authenticate users using only client-side code. It supports social login providers Facebook, GitHub, Twitter and Google. Additionally, it includes a user management system whereby developers can enable user authentication with email and password login stored with Firebase.

Realtime Database

Firebase provides a realtime database and backend as a service. The service provides application developers an API that allows application data to be synchronized across clients and stored on Firebase's cloud. The company provides client libraries that enable integration with Android, iOS, JavaScript, Java, Objective-C, swift and Node.js applications. The database is also accessible through a REST API and bindings for several JavaScript frameworks such as AngularJS, React, Ember.js and Backbone.js. The REST API uses the Server-Sent Events protocol, which is an API for creating HTTP connections for receiving push notifications from a server. Developers using the realtime database can secure their data by using the company's server-side-enforced security rules.

Firebase Storage

Firebase Storage provides secure file uploads and downloads for your Firebase apps, regardless of network quality. The developer can use it to store images, audio, video, or other user-generated content. Firebase Storage is backed by Google Cloud Storage, a powerful, simple, and cost-effective object storage service.

Firebase Hosting

Firebase Hosting is a static asset web hosting service that launched on May 13, 2014. It supports hosting static files such as CSS, HTML, JavaScript and other files that do not change dynamically. The service delivers files over a content delivery network (CDN) through HTTP Secure (HTTPS) and Secure Sockets Layer encryption (SSL). Firebase partners with Fastly, a CDN, to provide the CDN backing Firebase Hosting. The company states that Firebase Hosting grew out of customer requests; developers were using Firebase for its real-time database but needed a place to host their content.

Firebase Test Lab for Android

Firebase Test Lab for Android provides cloud-based infrastructure for testing Android apps. With one operation, developers can initiate testing of their apps across a wide variety of devices and device configurations. Test results—including logs, videos, and screenshots—are made available in the project in the Firebase console. Even if a developer hasn't written any test code for their app, Test Lab can exercise the app automatically, looking for crashes.

Firebase Crash Reporting

Crash Reporting creates detailed reports of the errors in the app. Errors are grouped into clusters of similar stack traces and triaged by the severity of impact on app users. In addition to automatic reports, developer can log custom events to help capture the steps leading up to a crash.

Firebase Notifications

Firebase Notifications is a free service that enables targeted user notifications for mobile app developers.

Firebase App Indexing

Firebase App Indexing, formerly Google App Indexing, gets an app into Google Search. Adding App Indexing promotes both types of app results within Google Search and also provides query autocompletions.

Firebase Dynamic Links

Firebase Dynamic Links are smart URLs that dynamically change behavior to provide the best experience across different platforms.

Firebase Invites

Firebase Invites is a cross-platform solution for sending personalized email and SMS invitations, on-boarding users, and measuring the impact of invitations.

Firebase Remote Config

Firebase Remote Config is a cloud service that lets developers change the behavior and appearance of their apps without requiring users to download an app update.

Adwords

Adwords is Google online advertising service that integrates with Firebase to enable developers to target users using Firebase Analytics segmentation

Admob

Admob is a Google product that integrates with Firebase and enable developers to Earn money by displaying engaging ads to a global audience.

Firepad

Firepad is an open source collaborative real-time editor. Released under the MIT License, Firepad is used by several editors, including the Atlassian Stash Realtime Editor and Koding.

Firechat

Firechat is an open source realtime chat application. It is released under the MIT License.

GeoFire

GeoFire is an open source library that makes use of the Firebase realtime database, allowing app developers to store and query a set of keys based on geographic location.