Book Image

Mastering Firebase for Android Development

By : Ashok Kumar S
Book Image

Mastering Firebase for Android Development

By: Ashok Kumar S

Overview of this book

Firebase offers a wide spectrum of tools and services to help you develop high-quality apps in a short period of time. It also allows you to build web and mobile apps quickly without managing the infrastructure.Mastering Firebase for Android Development takes you through the complete toolchain of Firebase,including the latest tools announced in Google IO 2018 such as Firebase ML-Kit, FireStore, and Firebase Predictions. The book begins by teaching you to configure your development environment with Firebase and set up a different structure for a Firebase real-time database. As you make your way through the chapters, you’ll establish the authentication feature in Android and explore email and phone authentication for managing the on-boarding of users. You’ll be taken through topics on Firebase crash reporting, Firebase functions, Firebase Cloud, Firebase Hosting, and Cloud Messaging for push notifications and explore other key areas in depth. In the concluding chapters, you will learn to use Firebase Test Lab to test your application before using Firebase Performance Monitoring to trace performance setbacks. By the end of the book, you will be well equipped with the Firebase ecosystem, which will help you find solutions to your common application development challenges.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
9
Application Usage Measuring and Notification, Firebase Analytics, and Cloud Messaging
11
Bringing Everyone on the Same Page, Firebase Invites, and Firebase App Indexing
12
Making a Monetary Impact and Firebase AdMob and AdWords
13
Flexible NoSQL and Cloud Firestore
14
Analytics Data, Clairvoyant, Firebase Predictions
Index

Cloud Messaging


Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) is a messaging service that offers a cross-platform messaging solution. FCM can be used to notify when there is new data available to sync. Using FCM, we engage the user and increase the chance of user retention. FCM allows up to 4 KB of payload transfer. The legacy way to send messages and notifications was the now-deprecated GCM. Google officially recommends using FCM for notifications and data messages.

There are some outstanding key capabilities, such as versatile message targeting, which allows device-specific messaging and the grouping of devices, including those subscribed to topics, and the sending of messages from user apps that can send acknowledgments, chats, and other messages from FCM.

FCM essentially includes two components: sender and receiver. The sender can be the application backend server or trusted services such as Firebase functions. Receivers are mobile and web platforms such as iOS and Android devices. 

Messages can be fired...