Add Firebase to your Android project

Prerequisites

  • Install or update Android Studio to its latest version.

  • Make sure that your app meets the following requirements:

    • Targets API level 16 (Jelly Bean) or later
    • Uses Gradle 4.1 or later

  • Set up a device or emulator for running your app.
    Emulators must use an emulator image with Google Play.

  • Sign into Firebase using your Google account.

If you don't already have an Android project and just want to try out a Firebase product, you can download one of our quickstart samples.


You can connect your Android app to Firebase using one of the following options:

  • Option 1: (recommended) Use the Firebase console setup workflow.
  • Option 2: Use the Android Studio Firebase Assistant (requires additional configuration).

Option 1: Add Firebase using the Firebase console

Adding Firebase to your app involves tasks both in the Firebase console and in your open Android project (for example, you download Firebase config files from the console, then move them into your Android project).

Step 1: Create a Firebase project

Before you can add Firebase to your Android app, you need to create a Firebase project to connect to your Android app. Visit Understand Firebase Projects to learn more about Firebase projects.

Step 2: Register your app with Firebase

After you have a Firebase project, you can add your Android app to it.

Visit Understand Firebase Projects to learn more about best practices and considerations for adding apps to a Firebase project, including how to handle multiple build variants.

  1. In the center of the Firebase console's project overview page, click the Android icon (plat_android) to launch the setup workflow.

    If you've already added an app to your Firebase project, click Add app to display the platform options.

  2. Enter your app's package name in the Android package name field.

    • A package name is sometimes referred to as an application ID.

    • Find this package name in your module (app-level) Gradle file, usually app/build.gradle (example package name: com.yourcompany.yourproject).

  3. (Optional) Enter other app information as prompted by the setup workflow.

  4. Click Register app.

Step 3: Add a Firebase configuration file

  1. Add the Firebase Android configuration file to your app:

    1. Click Download google-services.json to obtain your Firebase Android config file (google-services.json).

      • You can download your Firebase Android config file again at any time.
      • Make sure the config file is not appended with additional characters, like (2).

    2. Move your config file into the module (app-level) directory of your app.

  2. To enable Firebase products in your app, add the google-services plugin to your Gradle files.

    1. In your root-level (project-level) Gradle file (build.gradle), add rules to include the Google Services plugin. Check that you have Google's Maven repository, as well.

      buildscript {

  repositories {
    // Check that you have the following line (if not, add it):
    google()  // Google's Maven repository
  }

  dependencies {
    // ...

    // Add the following line:
    classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:4.3.3'  // Google Services plugin
  }
}

allprojects {
  // ...

  repositories {
    // Check that you have the following line (if not, add it):
    google()  // Google's Maven repository
    // ...
  }
}

    2. In your module (app-level) Gradle file (usually app/build.gradle), apply the Google Play services Gradle plugin:

      apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
// Add the following line:
apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'  // Google Play services Gradle plugin

android {
  // ...
}

Step 4: Add Firebase SDKs to your app

You can add any of the supported Firebase products to your Android app.

  1. To your module (app-level) Gradle file (usually app/build.gradle), add the dependencies for the Firebase products that you want to use in your app.

    Analytics enabled 

    dependencies {
  // ...
    
  // Add the Firebase SDK for Google Analytics
  implementation 'com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics:17.2.1'
    
  // Add the SDKs for any other Firebase products you want to use in your app
  // For example, to use Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore
  implementation 'com.google.firebase:firebase-auth:19.2.0'
  implementation 'com.google.firebase:firebase-firestore:21.3.1'
    
  // Getting a "Could not find" error? Make sure that you've added
  // Google's Maven repository to your root-level build.gradle file
}

    Analytics not enabled 

    dependencies {
  // ...
    
  // Add the SDKs for the Firebase products you want to use in your app
  // For example, to use Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore
  implementation 'com.google.firebase:firebase-auth:19.2.0'
  implementation 'com.google.firebase:firebase-firestore:21.3.1'
    
  // Getting a "Could not find" error? Make sure that you've added
  // Google's Maven repository to your root-level build.gradle file
}

  2. Sync your app to ensure that all dependencies have the necessary versions.

  3. If you added Analytics, run your app to send verification to Firebase that you've successfully integrated Firebase. Otherwise, you can skip the verification step.

    Your device logs will display the Firebase verification that initialization is complete. If you ran your app on an emulator that has network access, the Firebase console notifies you that your app connection is complete.

That's it! You can skip ahead to the next steps.

Option 2: Add Firebase using the Firebase Assistant

The Firebase Assistant registers your app with a Firebase project and adds the necessary Firebase files and code to your Android project — all from within Android Studio.

Note that the recommended option to connect your app to Firebase is to use the Firebase console setup workflow.

  1. Open your Android project in Android Studio.

  2. Select Tools > Firebase to open the Assistant window.

  3. Expand one of the listed Firebase products (for example, Analytics), then click the provided tutorial link (for example, Log an Analytics event).

  4. Click Connect to Firebase to register your app with an existing or new Firebase project and to automatically add the necessary files and code to your Android project.

  5. Check that your plugin and library versions are up-to-date:

    • In your root-level (project-level) Gradle file (build.gradle), check that your Google Services plugin version is up-to-date (com.google.gms:google-services:4.3.3).

    • In your module (app-level) Gradle file (usually app/build.gradle), check that your Firebase Android library versions are up-to-date.

  6. Sync your app to ensure that all dependencies have the necessary versions.

  7. Configure your Analytics data sharing settings in the Firebase console Project settings.
    Enabling the sharing of Analytics data with other Firebase products is required to use Firebase products like Firebase Predictions or Firebase A/B Testing.

  8. Run your app to send verification to Firebase that you've successfully integrated Firebase.

    Your device logs will display the Firebase verification that initialization is complete. If you ran your app on an emulator that has network access, the Firebase console notifies you that your app connection is complete.

Available libraries

The following Android libraries are available for the various Firebase products.

Some Firebase SDKs for Android offer an alternative Kotlin extensions library.

Service or Product Gradle dependencies
Google Play services plugin com.google.gms:google-services:4.3.3
AdMob com.google.firebase:firebase-ads:18.3.0
(required) com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics:17.2.1
Analytics com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics:17.2.1
App Indexing com.google.firebase:firebase-appindexing:19.0.0
Authentication com.google.firebase:firebase-auth:19.2.0
Cloud Firestore com.google.firebase:firebase-firestore:21.3.1
(alternatively for Kotlin) com.google.firebase:firebase-firestore-ktx:21.3.1 (beta)
Cloud Functions for Firebase Client SDK com.google.firebase:firebase-functions:19.0.1
(alternatively for Kotlin) com.google.firebase:firebase-functions-ktx:19.0.1 (beta)
Cloud Messaging com.google.firebase:firebase-messaging:20.1.0
(recommended) com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics:17.2.1
Cloud Storage com.google.firebase:firebase-storage:19.1.0
(alternatively for Kotlin) com.google.firebase:firebase-storage-ktx:19.1.0 (beta)
Crashlytics com.crashlytics.sdk.android:crashlytics:2.10.1
(recommended) com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics:17.2.1
Dynamic Links com.google.firebase:firebase-dynamic-links:19.0.0
(recommended) com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics:17.2.1
In-App Messaging com.google.firebase:firebase-inappmessaging:19.0.2
(alternatively for Kotlin) com.google.firebase:firebase-inappmessaging-ktx:19.0.2 (beta)
(required) com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics:17.2.1
In-App Messaging Display com.google.firebase:firebase-inappmessaging-display:19.0.2
(alternatively for Kotlin) com.google.firebase:firebase-inappmessaging-display-ktx:19.0.2 (beta)
(required) com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics:17.2.1
ML Kit: Vision APIs com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-vision:24.0.1
ML Kit: Image Labeling Model com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-vision-image-label-model:19.0.0
ML Kit: Object Detection and Tracking Model com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-vision-object-detection-model:19.0.3
ML Kit: Face Detection Model com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-vision-face-model:19.0.0
ML Kit: Barcode Scanning Model com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-vision-barcode-model:16.0.2
ML Kit: AutoML Vision Edge API com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-vision-automl:18.0.3
ML Kit: Natural Language APIs com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-natural-language:22.0.0
ML Kit: Language Identification Model com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-natural-language-language-id-model:20.0.7
ML Kit: Translate Model com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-natural-language-translate-model:20.0.7
ML Kit: Smart Reply Model com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-natural-language-smart-reply-model:20.0.7
ML Kit: Custom Model APIs com.google.firebase:firebase-ml-model-interpreter:22.0.1
Performance Monitoring com.google.firebase:firebase-perf:19.0.3
Realtime Database com.google.firebase:firebase-database:19.2.0
(alternatively for Kotlin) com.google.firebase:firebase-database-ktx:19.2.0 (beta)
Remote Config com.google.firebase:firebase-config:19.0.4
(alternatively for Kotlin) com.google.firebase:firebase-config-ktx:19.0.4 (beta)
(recommended) com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics:17.2.1

Control library versioning with a Firebase Bill of Materials (BoM) (experimental)

For easier library version management, consider importing a Firebase Bill of Materials (BoM).

Next steps

Learn about Firebase:

Add Firebase features to your app: