Add Firebase to your Unity projectplat_iosplat_androidplat_unity

Power up your Unity games with our Firebase Unity SDKs.

To show how easy it is to plug Firebase into your Unity project, we made a sample game, MechaHamster, that you can download from GitHub, the App Store, and the Google Play Store.

MechaHamster (GitHub)

MechaHamster (App Store)

MechaHamster (Play Store)

Find out more information about powering up your games with Firebase at our Firebase games page.

Have you already added Firebase to your Unity project? Make sure that you're using the latest version of the Firebase Unity SDK.

Step 1: Set up your environment

• Install Unity 5.3 or later.

• (iOS only) Ensure that you have access to the following:

  • Xcode 9.4.1 or later
  • CocoaPods 1.4.0 or later

• Ensure that your Unity project targets the appropriate OS level:

  • For iOS — target iOS 8 or later
  • For Android — target API level 16 (Jelly Bean) or later

• Set up a device or emulator for running your Unity project.

  • For iOS — For Firebase Cloud Messaging, you'll need:

    • A physical iOS device
    • APNs certificate with Push Notifications enabled

  • For Android — Emulators must use an emulator image with Google Play.

• Sign into Firebase using your Google account.

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

Step 2: Create a Firebase project

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

Step 3: Register your app with Firebase

You can register one or more apps or games to connect with your Firebase project.

1. In the center of the Firebase console's project overview page, click the Unity icon 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. Select which build target of your Unity project that you’d like to register, or you can even select to register both targets now.

3. Enter your Unity project’s platform-specific ID(s).

   1. Open your Unity project in your Unity IDE.

   2. Navigate to Build Settings > iOS or Android > Player Settings > Other Settings.

      The Unity project's ID is the Bundle Identifier value. (example ID: com.yourcompany.unity-project-name)

   3. Enter each platform-specific ID in the appropriate field:

      • For iOS — Enter your Unity project’s iOS ID in the iOS bundle ID field.

      • For Android — Enter your Unity project’s Android ID in the Android package name field.

        • The terms package name and application ID are often used interchangeably.

4. (Optional) Enter your Unity project’s platform-specific nickname(s).

   These nicknames are internal, convenience identifiers and are only visible to you in the Firebase console.

5. Click Register app.

Step 4: Add Firebase configuration files

1. Obtain your platform-specific Firebase configuration file(s) in the Firebase console setup workflow.

   • For iOS — Click Download GoogleService-Info.plist.

     • You can download your Firebase iOS config file again at any time.

   • For Android — Click Download google-services.json.

     • You can download your Firebase Android config file again at any time.

2. Open the Project window of your Unity project, then move your config file(s) into the Assets folder.

   • Before moving your config file, make sure the config file is not appended with additional characters, like (2).
   • You can place the Firebase config files anywhere within the Assets folder.

3. Back in the Firebase console, in the setup workflow, click Next.

Step 5: Add Firebase Unity SDKs

The steps in this section are an example of how to add supported Firebase products to your Unity project.

1. In the Firebase console, click Download Firebase Unity SDK, then unzip the SDK somewhere convenient.

   • You can download the Firebase Unity SDK again at any time.

   • The Firebase Unity SDK is not platform-specific.

2. In your open Unity project, navigate to Assets > Import Package > Custom Package.

3. From the unzipped SDK, select the supported Firebase products that you want to use in your app.

   Analytics enabled

   • Add the Firebase package for Google Analytics: FirebaseAnalytics.unitypackage
   • Add the packages for any other Firebase products you want to use in your app. For example, to use Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Database:
     FirebaseAuth.unitypackage and FirebaseDatabase.unitypackage

   Analytics not enabled

   Add the packages for the Firebase products you want to use in your app. For example, to use Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Database:
   FirebaseAuth.unitypackage and FirebaseDatabase.unitypackage

4. In the Import Unity Package window, click Import.

5. Back in the Firebase console, in the setup workflow, click Next.

Step 6: Confirm Google Play services version requirements

The Firebase Unity SDK for Android requires Google Play services, which must be up-to-date before the SDK can be used.

Add the following code at the start of your application. You can check for and optionally update Google Play services to the version that is required by the Firebase Unity SDK before calling any other methods in the SDK.

Firebase.FirebaseApp.CheckAndFixDependenciesAsync().ContinueWith(task => {
  var dependencyStatus = task.Result;
  if (dependencyStatus == Firebase.DependencyStatus.Available) {
    // Create and hold a reference to your FirebaseApp,
    // where app is a Firebase.FirebaseApp property of your application class.
    //   app = Firebase.FirebaseApp.DefaultInstance;

    // Set a flag here to indicate whether Firebase is ready to use by your app.
  } else {
    UnityEngine.Debug.LogError(System.String.Format(
      "Could not resolve all Firebase dependencies: {0}", dependencyStatus));
    // Firebase Unity SDK is not safe to use here.
  }
});

You’re all set! Your Unity project is registered and configured to use Firebase.

Known issues

.NET compatibility when using Unity 2017.x and later

Firebase supports .NET 4.x as an experimental build option in Unity 2017 and later. Firebase plugins use components of the Parse SDK to provide some .NET 4.x classes in earlier versions of .NET.

Therefore, the Firebase Unity SDK version 5.4.0 and later provide plugins that are compatible with either .NET 3.x or .NET 4.x in dotnet3 and dotnet4 directories of the Firebase Unity SDK.

If you import a Firebase plugin that is incompatible with the .NET version enabled in your project, you'll see compile errors from some types in the .NET framework that are implemented by the Parse SDK.

To resolve the compilation error, if you're using .NET 3.x:

1. Remove or disable the following DLLs for all platforms:
   • Parse/Plugins/dotNet45/Unity.Compat.dll
   • Parse/Plugins/dotNet45/Unity.Tasks.dll
2. Enable the following DLLs for all platforms:
   • Parse/Plugins/Unity.Compat.dll
   • Parse/Plugins/Unity.Tasks.dll

To resolve the compilation error, if you're using .NET 4.x:

1. Remove or disable the following DLLs for all platforms:
   • Parse/Plugins/Unity.Compat.dll
   • Parse/Plugins/Unity.Tasks.dll
2. Enable the following DLLs for all platforms:
   • Parse/Plugins/dotNet45/Unity.Compat.dll
   • Parse/Plugins/dotNet45/Unity.Tasks.dll

If you import another Firebase plugin:

• In your Unity project, navigate to Assets > Play Services Resolver > Version Handler > Update to enable the correct DLLs for your project.

Unity 2017.1 IL2CPP compilation in .NET 4.x projects

Firebase supports .NET 4.x as an experimental build option in Unity 2017 and later. Firebase plugins use components of the Parse SDK to provide some .NET 4.x classes in earlier versions of .NET.

Therefore, the Firebase Unity SDK version 5.4.0 and later provides type forwarding DLLs which forward Parse types (for example, Parse implementation of System.Threading.Tasks.Task) to the .NET framework. Unfortunately, IL2CPP (a transpiler that converts C# to C++) that is shipped in Unity 2017.1.x does not correctly process type forwarding DLLs which results in build errors that resemble the following:

Fatal error in Unity CIL Linker Mono.Cecil.ResolutionException: Failed to
resolve System.Threading.Tasks.TaskCompletionSource`1<T>

There is currently no workaround available for .NET 4.x IL2CPP build errors in Unity 2017.1, so you must upgrade to Unity 2017.2 or later to use .NET 4.x in projects compiled with IL2CPP.

Unity 2017.2 networking

Firebase Realtime Database creates TLS network connections using the .NET networking stack. TLS functionality is broken in Unity 2017.2 when using .NET 4.6 causing the Realtime Database plugin to fail in editors and on desktop.

There is no workaround for this issue, so you must use a different version of Unity, for example version 2017.1 or 2017.3.

Set up a desktop workflow (beta)

When you're creating a game, it's often much easier to test your game in the Unity editor and on desktop platforms first, then deploy and test on mobile devices later in development. To support this workflow, we provide a subset of the Firebase Unity SDKs which can run on Windows, OS X, Linux, and from within the Unity editor.

1. Set up a desktop-platform Unity project by following the same instructions as for a mobile platform (start with the Register your Unity project with Firebase step above.

2. Run your Unity project in the Unity IDE or select to build your Unity project for desktop.

3. (Optional) Run your Unity project in Edit Mode.

   The Firebase Unity SDK can also be run in Unity's edit mode, allowing its use in editor plugins.

   1. When you create a FirebaseApp used by the editor, don't use the default instance.

   2. Instead, provide a unique name to the FirebaseApp.Create() call.

      This is important to avoid a conflict in options between the instance used by the Unity IDE and the instance used by your Unity project.

Supported Firebase products

Learn more about the Unity Firebase libraries in the reference documentation.

The Firebase Unity SDK supports the following Firebase products on iOS and Android:

Supported Firebase products (desktop)

The Firebase Unity SDK includes desktop workflow support for a subset of products, enabling certain parts of Firebase to be used in the Unity editor and in standalone desktop builds on Windows, OS X, and Linux.

Firebase provides the remaining desktop libraries as stub (non-functional) implementations for convenience when building for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Therefore, you don't need to conditionally compile code to target the desktop.

Next steps

• Explore sample Firebase apps.

• Prepare to launch your app:

  • Set billing alerts.
  • Review the Firebase launch checklist.