what is firebase

What is Firebase and Its Features?

What is firebase? This is the most trending question among beginners web and mobile application developers. So, In this post, I will give you the basic introduction to google’s firebase.

What will you learn in this post?

What is Firebase?
What are Its Features?

Let’s dive in all these one by one!

What is Firebase?

Basically, Firebase is a platform(Google’s product) which let you build the web and mobile application without server-side programming. Firebase provides a real-time database which allows you to store data as well as sync data among users in real-time. It also provides multiple authentication systems, various APIs, hosting system, cloud messaging, etc.

Firebase Features

Firebase RealTime database
Firebase real-time database is a cloud-hosted database where data stored in JSON format. Cloud-hosted means, when you update the real-time database by inserting new data, that inserted data does store in the cloud and simultaneously a notification goes to all connected devices or users in no time.

The real-time database allows us to share a database across various platforms such as Android, IOS, and Web Applications

It can be used offline also. Yes, you heard it right.

Whenever a user goes offline, the local cache of device used by database SDK to store data and all locally stored data synchronized automatically when the user reconnects to the internet.

When it comes to managing database, security is the primary concern which comes in every mind like you.

In short, it’s fully secure. To keep your data secure, firebase real-time database provides database security rules. It allows your users to access data which belongs to them. It also provides a database structure facility. By using this facility, you can structure your database as per your project requirement.

The best thing about the real-time database is, you can achieve all above-mentioned facility by writing few lines of code, and of course, there is no server maintenance effort as well.

Firebase Analytics
Firebase Analytics collects information about an activity which is performed by your users within mobile and web applications at one place. That activity could be user information, how much time your users are spending in your app, their regularity, and demographic information. It provides unlimited logging for free of cost. It’s so easy to use. You just need to install firebase SDK have this feature.

Firebase Authentication
Nowadays most of the web and mobile application comes with user authentication feature to get their user identity and make applications more secure. Firebase provides so many ways of authentication for users. You can use your email id as well as social media such as Google, facebook, twitter, etc to authenticate the applications. Firebase authentication also provides open source UI of authentication. And of course, you can make your very own custom UI.

Firebase Cloud Messaging
Firebase cloud messaging allows users to send messages very easily at no cost across the various platform. With Firebase cloud messaging you can send the message to a single user as well as a group of users.

Firebase Storage
Firebase storage is a security feature of Firebase, which provides a facility where your application users can store their files such as images, audio, video and other contents.

Firebase hosting
Firebase hosting is a secure, fast and reliable static web hosting provider. This is used for front-end web applications mostly. Means, it supports applications which are purely built static using HTML CSS and JavaScript. Files are delivered through HTTPS and SSL over CDN.

Firebase Test lab For Android
This is a cloud-based infrastructure which allows developers to test their Android application across various kind of devices and their configuration in simple steps. It shows a detail report, screenshots, videos, and crashes report as a test result.

Firebase Crash reporting
This feature collects information of errors which your users are experiencing in your application and represent in the dashboard.

In the dashboard, you can monitor the performance of your application.

Firebase Notification
Firebase notification features let you send notifications to your users with no coding required. You can send notifications to a particular user as well as a group of users in no time.

Firebase App Indexing
Firebase app indexing re-engages your users by indexing your app with the Google search. If you have content associated with your app, Google index your app when users search that associated content.

Firebase Dynamic link
This is advance URLs technique which gives the best experience to users across various platforms and devices by changing own behavior dynamically.

Firebase Invites
Firebase invites allow a user to invite your apps and their aspects to other users via email, message, etc.

Firebase Adwords.
By using these features you can let people know about your applications. You have to just set up an ad campaign

and this tool will reach your app to the users who might be interested in your app.

Final Words

Well, It was a quick introduction to Google’s Firebase. Using firebase for small web and mobile application makes more sense. If you are a JavaScript or any of its framework developer then Firebase is more useful for you. It will help you to build an angular application without any server-side programming languages.

Hope you have got basic Idea about what is Firebase and its features.  We have prepared a step by step Angular 4 Firebase tutorial with the small example application. You can head over to the tutorial and learn to build your first Angular 4 app with Firebase