For the last few weeks, I have learned how to build Android apps from scratch. I went to the official Android site to get the sdk and Android Studio. After building a simple app, I decided to research tools available in the Android ecosystem.
One of the tools I found interesting was Firebase by Google. In a nutshell, Firebase offers the infrastructure to handle authentication, cloud messaging, and storage. In addition to these services, they also provide realtime database, hosting, remote config, test lab, and crash reporting. By using these services, developers can concentrate on building awesome apps instead of worrying about server setups, rest api services, or database management.
For the Android app I’m building, I’m using authentication and realtime database from Firebase.
I was able to get up and running by reading the Get Started guide for Android. I also forked the github repository with examples for authentication and database. They also have a Youtube channel with tutorials for Android, iOS, and JavaScript apps.
I’m still working on the app but soon I will push it to Github and hopefully we can add more features or even better create an iOS app.