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What do you do when you are bored of scrolling through your social media feed, find nothing interesting on TV, and can’t step out of your home due to COVID-19?

One of the best ways to keep yourself entertained while learning some cool words is by playing Scrabble games.

Scrabble is one of the most popular crossword games that has come a long way from traditional game boards to online mobile apps. Earlier, Scrabble came packaged in a box with letter tiles and a 15×15 square grid game board.

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This game is popular all over the world and is sold in over 120 countries in 29 different languages. The game is enjoyed so much that there are about 4,000 Scrabble clubs across the globe.

All thanks to app development companies that have managed to deliver the classic Scrabble experience through word Scrabble apps.

Many companies such as blockchain app development companies and IoT app development companies are also developing various games by integrated emerging technologies for a better experience.

Best 5 Word Scrabble Mobile Apps

Here are the best 5 word Scrabble mobile apps of 2020 that you can download for free and turn your boring day into an entertaining one.

1. Aworded Crack

Also known as Word Crack, this app has over 10 million installs and over 369,000 reviews. It is one of the most popular apps for playing Scrabble games as it works on the same rules and mechanics as the classic Scrabble game. The Word Crack app offers a multi-player, cross-platform where users can play against friends or random opponents.

It’s a free game that doesn’t have any play limits as it offers unlimited simultaneous games. You can earn more points using bonus squares, double or triple the value of letters or words you use. Moreover, using all the letters on the rack you can earn 40 bonus points. The app supports 16 different languages which is the highest number amongst the best 5 Scrabble apps. Android and iPhone users can download this app for free from their respective app stores.

2. Classic Words Solo

For a simple yet excellent Scrabble game experience, the Classic Words Solo app is the go-to app. The app has over 10 million installs, more than 167K reviews, and a 4.7 rating on the Play Store. The app offers the classic board game on the mobile without any extras.

It has a solo play mode, local multiplayer mode, and a score preview. It also features six difficulty levels, shuffling, offline play, word definitions, and 6 languages. You can play the game for free with ads between moves or purchase a pro version to remove ads. You can download this app for free on Android or iOS.

3. Scrabble Go

The Scrabble Go app is the official app for the classic Scrabble game with over 10 million downloads, over 252K reviews, and a 4.3 rating. The game has a lot in store for the Scrabble nerds. It allows users to create custom word tiles, use the Scrabble dictionary, and play on the official scrabble board for an authentic crossword game experience.

You might be interested: How to Delete All Emails at Once on Android [Magic Trick]

The app features in-game chat, solo practice modes, Scrabble Leagues, game boosts, unlocking new levels, and tracking stats. The app also offers four fast-paced competitive games such as Tumbler, Word Drop, Rush, Duels. These game modes offer different gaming experiences such as anagrams, solo modes, word search games, and timer-based games. Android and iPhone users can find this app for free downloads on their app stores.

4. Words With Friends 2

Words With Friends 2 app is the third version in the Words With Friends franchise. The app has over 10 million installs, 332K reviews, and a 3.7 rating on the Play Store. The app comes with new and exciting features such as solo play mode, improved dictionary with over 50,000 additional words, online PvP mode, and other game modes.

Users can compete in lightning rounds, play anagrams, complete daily goals, customize their tiles and profile frames, and play weekly challenges to collect unique badges. The app is free to use and doesn’t display ads if users had purchased no third-party ads or the pro version in the original app. However, users have to login through their email or Facebook account that they used during the purchase of the pro version to play games without ads. You can download the app for free from the App Store or the Play Store.

5. Wordfeud

Another amazing word Scrabble game of 2020 is Wordfeud. The app boasts a player base of 30 million users that you can play against. Although, not all users may be active together at a given time. The app has a 4.5 rating, over 10 million downloads, and 609K+ reviews on the Play Store.

The multiplayer puzzle game has introduced different mechanics which randomizes the DW, DL, TW, and TL score tiles on the board to make the game more interesting and add complexity. The app features 30 simultaneous games, push notifications of opponents’ move, 10 language dictionaries, in-game chat, etc. The game can be downloaded from the App Store or the Play Store for free with advertisements. Alternatively, you can purchase a pro version to remove ads within the game.

It’s the guest post published by Vijaya Bharti who is a Content Writer at Enuke Software Company specialized in RPA, iOT and Blockchain app development. She is passionate about writing, she has made her passion her profession. She enjoys writing and learning in the process as she believes there is no end to gaining knowledge.

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Are you curious to know what happens when you click on a pushing link on your android phone?

Just by clicking a pushing link, can insert malware on your phone?

To find the answer, you must know what exactly is a pushing link.

What is a Phishing Link?

A phishing link is a link used to steal secret confidential by tricking users into believing the receipt is the official sender of the email, message, or the link, but actually, the sender is a hacker or a scammer.

Example of a Phishing Link

I’ll explain how a phishing link can easily trick you.

A hacker creates a fake ID on your friend’s name. He sends you a request and talks to you for a few days or weeks to build a rapport. Most hackers start the process immediately, but some take time.

One day he says he has made a unique online tool that can be used to send emails to all of your friends at once on Facebook. He sends you a link, you sign in with your username and password and test it.

The tool may work or not, depending on the expertise of the hacker. Unknowingly, the hacker has captured your username and password from the form you have filled.

Now he can sign in on your account and can do anything without your knowledge.

In the past, hackers have made a duplicate Facebook with the help of the source code.

The website looks exactly like Facebook with a different domain name, in this case, it’s https://bit.ly/32w7zWQ

The hacker might say it’s the latest version of Facebook, and others don’t have access to it. You type the email and password; he can easily capture it.

What If I Clicked on a Phishing Link on My Android Phone

Now come to the right question you came here for.

If you don’t know about a phishing link, you might be in hot water in the future.

Especially when you have a bank account and the hacker knows about your bank.

He may send you a link that tricks you into believing the message was sent from your official bank account that asks about your username, password, and pin code to modify anything.

If you don’t do it, the hacker writes a sentence that may scare you: if you don’t provide the information, your account will get blocked.

It means a phishing link can be used to:

Steal personal data

Steal financial card details

Steal login credentials

Install malware onto your Android phone

Have you read the news the Youtube channel has hacked?

It happens due to a phishing link.

The hacker sends an email that wants the victim to install a specific software like VPN to promote the channel for a high price to attract the victim, but the malware can steal the cookies and save passwords from transferring the ownership.

Final Thoughts

Hackers keep evolving phishing attacks, and creative hackers always win. You must be aware of the common phishing attacks to save your valuable assets; otherwise, you’ll regret it. Everyday accounts get hacked, and some don’t get their original version back no matter what they do.

It’s recommended not to open a phishing link on your Android phone. If you want to open, you must investigate it via Google. If you get a link from your bank that asks for secret information, call your bank to ask about it even if you get a link on your phone number as a message since it can easily be spoofed.

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Is Firebase free, really? It depends on what you want to get out of it.

Did you know? Freemium products like Firebase are like drugs that are offered for free at first, but when you become addicted, you pay for it to gain the full taste of it.

What is a freemium model? Let’s talk about it.

What is the Firebase Freemium Model?

Did you know freemium is the combination of the words “free” and “premium”?

Firebase freemium is the pricing strategy by Google that is provided free of charge, but you need to spend money on getting additional features and services.

Free service helps in promoting the app when people get addicted to the free service; they tend to buy the premium version of the product sooner or later.

It’s not only Firebase, but thousands of companies have also adopted the freemium model to attract a huge audience like Dropbox, Google Drive, Zoho and many more.

Don’t believe me?

You can read the Harvard research written in 2014 about the freemium model of Dropbox.

Firebase categorized its plans into two parts:

Spark Plan (Free) – Basic

Blaze Plan (Paid) – Advanced

A lot of people are thinking about where the Flame plan has gone?

As of January 2020, Flame Plan is not available for new users anymore.

Yes, it’s bad from some developer’s point of view, but I don’t care about this plan because the Blaze plan is much better.

Free Services Both In Spark & Blaze plan

Here are the free services you get in Spark and Blaze Plan:

A/B Testing: You can distribute your app to a specific no of users to check which app version is better. It’s free in Firebase. Know about how to contact A/B Test using Firebase with remote config.

Analytics: It predicts your app analysis. Learn Events in Analytics.

App Distribution: It distributes your app to trusted testers.

App Indexing: It helps your app to be indexed on Google and other search engines.

In App-Messaging: It helps you to engage with users who are actively using your app.

Cloud Messaging: Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) was formally known as Google Cloud Messaging. It is used to send push notifications & messages on iOS, Android and web applications.

Crashlytics: It helps you to understand how many crashes occur in your app. Learn how to use firebase Crashlytics.

Dynamic links: Dynamic links are the app link that works differently depending on the operating system and can be used to redirect the users from one platform to another.

Remote config: You can easily configure some basic functionality of your app through remote config like changing color, hide & display text, etc.

Performance Monitoring: You can easily monitor your app performance.

Predictions: It’s a machine learning tool from Firebase that helps you to analyze better whether a particular user will return to your app or not.

Firebase is generous and provides you services, no matter how much you use.

Spark (Free) Plan & Blaze (Paid) Plan

Now it’s time to analyze other services of Firebase which are limited and paid for the app owners.

Authentication: Authentication is beneficial for the user. It gives you 10k/ month authentication and after 10k you have to give 1cent/query (For Canada, India) and 6 cents for the rest of the world. We’ve written the complete series about Authentication.

Cloud Firestore: Cloud Firestore is the new database and recommended by Firebase. It gives you 1 GiB total storage, which is a high amount in terms of textual data and you don’t easily hit write and read permission too early. If you are hitting this limit with small users, make sure your app is bug-free.

Cloud Functions: Cloud function specification is good in the free plan. Invocation 125k/month is a good figure. If you are hitting above this figure, then you might be earning from your app. Also, the Blaze Plan is affordable. Learn more about Firebase Cloud Functions.

Hosting: Gives you good hosting storage in spark plan but charges in Blaze Plan are quite reasonable. Also, it gives you free SSL & multiple sites per project. Learn how to upload a static website on Firebase hosting.

ML kit: Machine learning kit is used if you are working with machine learning. It is a great tool you should use in your project. AI & ML gives you precise information. 1k images/project is good for small apps. Maybe you should go to premium if you are working on big apps.

Real-time Database: One of the best things regarding a Realtime database is they give you free & unlimited read, write permission. Learn how to use Firebase Database

Storage: Cloud Storage might not be cheap, especially if you are building a photo-sharing or video type platform, then it might be costly for you. But trust me, other companies are also charging a high amount in terms of storage. If you want to compare storage with other services, then take a look at Firebase vs AWS. Learn more about how to use Firebase Storage.

Test Lab: Gives you free 5 tests/day on real devices and 10 tests/day on virtual devices which is a reasonable amount if you are just an individual developer. But if you are a big software company, you should purchase a blazing plan whose price is also reasonable if you are from the USA and the UK based company and maybe this price feels big for Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Learn more Firebase Test Lab

Google Cloud Platform: If you are dealing with a high amount of data then you segregate your data into Big Query (a platform from Google) then obviously you can easily generate that income which is fair enough to pay the bills.

Blaze (Paid) Plan Calculator

You can also use a Firebase plan calculator to calculate your app cost and then pay as you go.

Go to Blaze Plan Calculator to use the calculator to find out the cost.

Suppose I have a photo-sharing app that requires approximately 75GB storage and 100GB of transferred storage, you end up paying only $15 per month.

Let me know if you have any questions. Our experienced Android experts will answer each of your questions.

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Do you want to know about an Android emulator?

And how does it work?

Without wasting your time, let’s get started.

What is an Android Emulator?

An Android emulator is software that enables your computer (known as the host) to behave like an Android phone (known as the guest). The Android emulator allows the host computer to use its power to run the guest Android phone.

Why is an Android emulator is Used?

Due to the advancement of technology, laptops and PCs have become powerful that can run mobile phones smoothly. People install Android emulators on their laptops to run mobile games and other applications, for example, Whatsapp.

You might be interested: How to Send Large Videos Through Text on Android [Tricks]

Moreover, many people have mobiles that run out of battery quickly, but laptops and PCs don’t have such issues and can play games for hours.

Besides, people love installing many versions of the same application like Whatsapp to have multiple numbers for businesses.

What Are the Android Emulator Benefits?

When you use Android emulator, you get the following benefits:

Get better graphics quality and high FPS

Additional features that original Android phones don’t have

It’s more cost-efficient since you don’t need to buy the latest mobile to enjoy the experience

You can play better in most games since you can use a mobile, and keyboard.

With a powerful PC, streaming on Youtube and Twitch becomes smoother.

Is It Safe to Use Android Emulating Software on Laptops and Pcs?

Yes, it’s safe provided you don’t use any illegal things like hacking material or VPNs that are against the Terms and Conditions of the game or the application.

You might be interested: How to Delete All Emails at Once on Android [Magic Trick]

For normal applications like Whatsapp, Instagram, and Facebook it’s completely safe to use.

It’s better for Google to find out the issues the emulator might cause to your game.

Are Android Emulators Illegal?

Android emulators are not illegal. They are safe to use since Android is open source and users are allowed to modify and use it.

As long as you’re not breaking the terms of conditions, you can use it safely.

For example, you can use Android Studio to emulate your application.

Can I Get Banned by User Bluestack from Playing on My PC?

Most users have reported not to use Bluestacks since it shows the application the device is rooted that can be responsible for banning your account. It’s recommended to use NOX that has no root access.

What Are the Best Android Emulators?

The market is full of Android emulators, but the best emulators are the followings:

LDPlayer

Android Studio’s emulator

ARChon

Bliss OS

Bluestacks

The post What Is an Android Emulator? 7 Questions Answered appeared first on Firebase Tutorials.

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Limitation is the biggest enemy in the text either it comes to videos or documents.

Sooner or later we need to send large videos through text on Android to our friends, colleagues, or teachers.

The default limitation may not allow you to perform the action.

But worry not, we’ve come up a solution that is simple.

First, you must know what’s the limitation of file size on different platforms on the web.

Limitation of Large Video File on Famous Platforms

Here are the top 5 major platforms that you can use to send large videos, but keep in mind, their limitations as well.

Whatsapp

The maximum file size allowed on Whatsapp for photos, videos, and voice message is 16MB. It’s equal to 90 seconds to 3 minutes of videos. But for sending documents, the maximum file size allowed on Whatsapp is 100MB.

Facebook

Facebook is the best platform that has a huge file size limit. On Facebook, you can send a video or document file of up to 10GB. The maximum video length shouldn’t exceed 240 minutes.

Instagram

Instagram allows you to send a video of 60 minutes, and it should be less than 3.6GB. But if you have a video of 10 minutes, it shouldn’t exceed 650MB.

Gmail

Gmail allows you to send a video file that is less than 25MB otherwise it’s uploaded to Google Drive and its direct link is given.

Youtube

Youtube leads the list that allows you to send a video that is 128GB in size. Moreover, it shouldn’t be longer than 12 hours.

How to Send Large Videos Through Text on Android

Use Youtube or Facebook

Youtube has a whopping limit of 128GB and Facebook allows you to upload a video of 10GB.

You should upload your large video to Youtube with Youtube’s official app. Once uploaded, Youtube provides you a link where you can use large videos through text on Android.

The part of Youtube is that you don’t need to make the video public.

You can make your video private or make it unlisted. Unlisted means only the users who have the link can watch the video, others can’t search via Youtube Search.

You can apply the same rule to Facebook. You can send via messenger or upload it to your timeline and send a link to your friend.

Use Google Drive 

Google Drive has a maximum file size limit of 750GB that you can upload in a day.

Did you know? If you upload a video to Google Drive, Google processes the video and your friend can watch in real-time without downloading the file.

You can easily send large videos and can use it to send your friends through text.

How to upload a video to Google Drive?

It’s easy. Install the Google Drive app.

Upload your file and right-click to share the link.

Final Thoughts

Sending a large video through text on Android is not possible, alternative ways are adopted to perform the action. The best way is to upload to Youtube or Google Drive and share the link through text that is easily clickable and will run fast to the client browsers.

Ask any questions below, your every question is answered.

The post How to Send Large Videos Through Text on Android [Tricks] appeared first on Firebase Tutorials.

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I’ll show the trick that only a few people know that can help you to delete all emails at once on Android.

Most methods on the web are app oriented, but I’ll show the different way that always works.

The short answer is that you can’t delete all the emails with your Gmail Android app, you’ll need a desktop version of Gmail to perform the action.

To solve the issue, we’ll need an app later explained, and force it to open the desktop version of Gmail.

First I’ll show the android app way, then the Chrome way.

Delete Emails on Android Through Gmail App

Deleting all the emails at once on the Android app is not possible.

You can select many emails at once and then you can delete.

If you have hundreds of thousands of emails in your Inbox, the possibility of deleting all the messages will take a thousand years.

Want to see how?

Open your Gmail app.

Press for a second message, you can select many messages at once.

Select the three dots and delete all.

But it’s not the solution you’re looking for, right?

Delete All Emails at Once on Android via Desktop App

The default version of the Google Chrome app on your Android cannot run the full desktop version of Gmail even if you request the desktop version.

Either it shows the mobile version or the HTML version of Gmail that is no longer beneficial to you.

The best trick I found is to install a Desktop Browser on your Android app to run the Gmail and it works wonders.

Open your Desktop Android app.

Go to the Gmail website.

Sign in the account.

Select one email and select the icon and choose the option all and hit delete.

You may also get a message “Select all x Conversation in X” Tap on it to select all.

And hit the Delete, Trash Icon

, to delete all your emails at once.

You’re done.

Final Thoughts

Gmail app doesn’t have the ability to delete all the emails at once, but it’s a recommended feature Google should be working on. We need to use third-party apps to fulfill the action, but it’d be a lot better if it’s done natively via the Gmail app.

Deleting all the emails is easy when we use an app that runs the desktop version that tricks Gmail when we’re using the desktop, but actually, we use mobile.

FAQs

Is it possible to delete all emails at once on Android?

Of course, it’s possible to delete all emails on Android, but not possible directly since Android doesn’t offer the feature. We’ve mentioned the magic trick that works like a charm.

Can I use the trick to delete all emails for Gmail?

Of course, you can use the trick to use Gmail or any other email service provider since it works on the principle of the desktop version.

Why Android doesn’t have the built-in feature to delete all emails?

We understand it’s not available, but you can request a feature from your Android Gmail app by going to Menu and click Help and Feedbacks.

Which Android app will you use to delete all emails at once?

It’s not a dedicated app to delete all your emails since your information is sensitive. It’s not a good idea to handover your account confidential to an unknown app. Using a desktop app is much safer and better.

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Is Firebase Hosting free?

And how much does Firebase Hosting cost?

You’ll find answers to 10 questions in this blog post.

Excited?

Let’s get started.

First I’ll cover the basics since many people have no idea what is Firebase and its hosting capabilities.

1. What is Firebase? 

Firebase is a mobile and web application development platform developed by Firebase, Inc in 2011. Later, it was acquired by Google in 2014.

More technically, Firebase is a BAAS short for Backend-as-a-service which helps you to build better apps, websites, or games regardless of server-side coding, API or backend data storage.

2. What is Firebase Hosting?

Firebase Hosting service is a dynamic and static web hosting service that is fast, secure, and reliable. The big G calls it production-grade web content hosting for developers.

Moreover, files are deployed on SSDs and CDN edge servers around the globe. It supports hosting files like (javascript, HTML, CSS, etc), also supported through Cloud Functions.

3. Is Firebase Hosting Free?

Firebase Hosting is not completely free since it works on the principles of the Freemium Model. In the Freemium Model, Firebase Hosting is provided free of charge, but you’re charged for additional features.

Here you can see the Firebase Hosting pricing for free and premium model.

Firebase Hosting pricing for the free and paid version

The highlighted square shown in the screenshot is the free version features for Firebase Hosting.

When you cross the limits of GB stored (space), you’re entitled to pay $0.026 per GB. It means if you want the storage of 50GB, you’ll pay $1.3 only. That’s a pretty good deal.

Similarly, your website consumes 100GB of bandwidth a month, you’ll pay $15 per month that may be a huge amount.

Pro Tip: Use Cloudflare CDN to reduce your bandwidth consumption.

The best thing about the free version of the Firebase Hosting is you can attach custom domain otherwise other platforms charge heavily for it.

Without SSL, your website and app will never be considered secure. It has become a standard, SSL is given free of cost.

Another good thing is that you can host multiple sites per project. You don’t need to create separate projects for your website.

It shows the FIrebase Hosting pricing is affordable to most developers. For beginner developers, the free version is enough to feed their needs and wants.

4. Should You Use Firebase Free Hosting?

It depends on you.

Google has another great product that is Blogger that offers you unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, free custom domain and free SSL.

But it has a lot of limitations and issues when it comes to customization.

In Firebase hosting, you have to make a folder and put all your files to run on your website. You can make your own HTML and CSS simple website with it.

But if you want to be a pro blogger, you should use WordPress hosting.

Did you know? Our website is hosted on DigitalOcean and runs on WordPress.

5. Can You Install WordPress on Firebase Hosting?

Very interesting question.

You cannot install WordPress on Firebase Hosting since Firebase doesn’t support PHP and any server-side programs. PHP is the fundamental need of WordPress to function fully whereas Firebase Hosting only delivers static content, for example, HTML, CSS, JS, and images.

For WordPress, you must have a database, PHP running 5.2 or the latest 7.5, and many other technologies that Firebase Hosting doesn’t provide at all.

7. Does Firebase Hosting Support PHP?

Firebase Hosting doesn’t support PHP. Firebase Hosting is only capable of handling static content like HTML, CSS, JS, and images. You’ll need to buy dedicated hosting that is made for PHP for example, Bluehost, SIteground, or Kinsta to run PHP.

8. Can You Add a Custom Domain to Firebase Hosting?

Of course, you can add a custom domain to Firebase Hosting free of cost. It requires some steps that we have explained in this article.

9. What is the Firebase Hosting Bandwith Limit?

In the free plan of Firebase Hosting, you’re limited to use only 10GB of bandwidth per month. If your page size is 1MB, it can handle only 10,000 visitors a month.

10. How to Use Custom Domain Name Email with Firebase Hosting?

Firebase Hosting doesn’t provide email feature like Gmail. But you can easily create a professional email with the help of Zoho that offers a free plan. You just need access to the domain to create a professional email. You can watch this video.

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What is Firebase? Want to know the 15 reasons? Keep reading.

Contemporary, a bunch of clouds (server-side) technologies exists created by many companies, offering their services and easing the work of developers.

The best part with Firebase?

You no longer need to write all the server-side code.

If you just want to implement the sign-in/sign-up feature saving a ton of time, and it’s not limited to sign-in/sign-up only.

Server-side technologies nowadays can handle pretty much as long as it is concerned with the cloud, like saving/reading the files, data-security, building a huge database, sending push notifications, as I said, pretty much everything, you just name it.

Many companies but here, today, we will explore only one of them. Which is no other than Firebase by Google itself!

What is Firebase?

Firebase is a mobile and web application development platform developed by Firebase, Inc in 2011. Later, it was acquired by Google in 2014.

More technically, Firebase is a BAAS short for Backend-as-a-service which helps you to build better apps, websites, or games regardless of server-side coding, API or backend data storage.

Firebase offers 19 products which can significantly reduce the amount of time you write code.

We can split Firebase products into 3 categories:

Development products

Improvement products

Grow products

Now, we’ll jump into each category and will give you the know-how of each product. We will not be covering the topics which are in the beta state.

1. Development Products

Developments products offer great help especially when your product is in the development phase.

When I say your product it could be anything you are currently working on: mobile app, a web app, an IoT project, etc.

So the development products by Firebase are as below:

a) Firebase Database

Firebase Database is quite a confusing thing for beginners. If you go to the Firebase Console, open any project and open the Database section from the left sidebar then there would be two options waiting for you.

Firebase Realtime Database

Firebase Cloud Firestore

Let’s explore each of these in detail but keep in mind that both of these are non-SQL and realtime databases.

First I wanna make you clear about what is a Real-time Database. You can read the nerdy definition here on Wikipedia about the real-time database, but long story short:

It is a database, where we don’t need to request the data, the server provides it in realtime.

In fact, the Realtime Database is the Firebase’s first and original cloud-based database. For the mobile apps requiring synced states across clients in realtime, it is an efficient and low-latency solution.

Let me make it more understandable with an example.

Suppose you are going to develop a chat app, where a user can sign-in and chat with their friends. The sign-in part can easily be handled by Firebase Authentication (later described in this article).

But for sending and receiving messages, we need a database, except apart from Firebase there are thousands of online databases out there but most of them don’t provide the functionality of Real-Time.

Do you know what happens without a real-time database?

We need to hit the refresh button to check if there is any other message or not, and I think it is scary, isn’t?

b) Firebase Real-time Database

Screenshot of Firebase Realtime Database of my Android App

Real-time Database is the way of the future, now most of the servers need HTTP requests to read or write data where most database gives data only when you ask them.

But when you are connecting your app to the Firebase Real-time database, you are not connecting through normal HTTP but through Web Sockets which are a lot faster than HTTP.

Data is stored in JSON and synchronized in realtime to every connected client.

Besides when you build cross-platform apps with our iOS, Android, and JavaScript SDKs, all of your clients share one Realtime Database instance and automatically receive updates with the newest data. And when they call it Realtime, they mean it.

Here comes the more advantage of Real-time Database:

It automatically calls a function when some change is happening in the database, and through that function, we can easily create a notification to inform the user about the new message.

You don’t need to restart your app or push a button to check if there is any change in the database. It can be a lot more helpful for Apps and especially Games.

We do that using Firebase Cloud Functions that we will be learning too in this tutorial.

Real-time Database works very fine even when there is no internet connection, it persists your data to disk. And once, the connectivity is back the client device receives any changes it missed.

Real-time Database supports iOS, Android, Web, C++, and unity

c) Firebase Cloud Firestore

Screenshot of Firebase Cloud Firestore containing dummy data

Cloud Firestore —which was released way after the Firebase Realtime Database — is the new flagship database for mobile apps.

It is faster, richer and more scalable than the realtime database.

Cloud Firestores uses documents and collections to store data.

Documents will also frequently be pointed to subcollections, which contain other documents, which themselves can contain other documents, so on and on.

And this document-based database makes it faster while performing a search since you can request the document without grabbing all the data underneath.

The other difference between both of these databases is their pricing model.

Realtime Database charges on the base of storage or network bandwidth where Cloud Firestore charges you on the base of operations performed.

Which one is best for you? That depends on your app.

Like if you are developing a news app, the turn-based multiplayer game then Cloud Firestore would be the best option for you from a pricing point of view

But if you are developing an app that sends multiple updates to multiple users in a fraction of second then Firebase Realtime Database is the thing for you.

Did you know?

Cloud Firestore supports iOS, Android, and Web

d) Firebase Cloud Storage

Well, there is a difference between Firebase Storage and Database.

You can find a lot of fancy differences between them but the main thing is the Database. It is more organized and we can perform queries on them while Storage is not organized and we can not perform queries on them.

The thing we discussed above deals with Database, that’s why it’s called Firebase Database, where the Firebase Cloud Storage deals with Storage as the name suggests.

Screenshot of Firebase Storage containing dummy data

Now that difference is clear so we can move on now.

You know storage is a necessity, even an app with just registration feature have to store at least the profile picture of the user. So that simple app does need some server to save the picture and retrieve upon request. And that’s exactly what Firebase Cloud Storage does.

Firebase Cloud Storage provides the easiest way to save binary files – most often images but you can save anything like a video, pdf, etc. – to Google Cloud Storage directly from the client.

Cloud Storage supports iOS, Android, Web, C++, and unity.

e) Firebase Cloud Functions

There comes a need when you want to do a certain task on the base of some change. Like in the chat app, we want to notify the user when someone sent a message.

If I make it more technical then, we need to notify the user when there is some change in the database did by some other user.

That’s where Firebase Cloud Functions play their roles. You need to write code that you want to be executed when a specific change happens. Your code is stored on Google’s cloud and runs in a managed environment. There’s no need to manage and scale your own servers

The code is written in Node.js language. And can be triggered by other Firebase and Google Cloud features like

Cloud Firestore triggers: which can help you to trigger the function on the base of following events

Event Type Trigger onCreate Triggered when a document is written to for the first time. onUpdate Triggered when a document already exists and has any value changed. onDelete Triggered when a document with data is deleted. onWrite Triggered when onCreate, onUpdate or onDelete is triggered.

Realtime Database Triggers: This also provides almost the same events as Cloud Firestore triggers, to trigger function.

There are many more triggers like:

Remote Config Triggers

Firebase Test Lab Triggers

Firebase Authentication Triggers

Google Analytics Triggers

Crashlytics Triggers

Cloud Storage Triggers

Cloud Pub/Sub Triggers

HTTP Triggers

f) Firebase Authentication

In our chat app, we need to know the identity of the user, which allows us to save the user chat and the same personalized experience across all the devices.

Firebase Authentication provides the best back-end service. You can authenticate the user by integrating Federated Identity Providers. Firebase Authentication SDK’s provide multiple options for sign-in like sign in with Google, Facebook, Twitter, Github, phone number, or email address.

Not only this but it handles everything that is required for sign up like email/phone number verification and even the password reset process.

Screenshot of Firebase Auth

Everyone wants to provide rich user experience, but to provide smooth UX as well as solving all the backend problems could be a lot of work.

Luckily FirebaseUI makes all of these really easy. You can use this open-source library to provide a rich user experience. FirebaseUI provides a drop-in auth solution that handles the UI flows for signing in users with email addresses and passwords, phone numbers, and with popular federated identity providers, including Google Sign-In and Facebook Login.

Firebase Authentication supports iOS, Android, Web, C++, and unity

g) Firebase Hosting

Firebase Hosting — as the name suggests — provides hosting for web either you are building a simple landing page for your app or you are going to develop a very complex Progressive Web App (PWA), it can help you in both.

The special thing is, you can use Cloud Functions for Firebase or Cloud Run to serve dynamic content and host microservices on your sites.

2. Improvements Products

Now that you have successfully developed your product using Firebase amazing features, now is the time to improve your product, otherwise, your product may become outdated over time.

So, speaking of improvements, Firebase is there for you as well. There are a few products that can save you a lot.

a) Crashlytics

Whenever an app is crashed, it invites your users to rate the app poorly or uninstall it. Even after testing your app multiple times, it’s quite possible that it can get crashed or stop responding to several devices depending on different factors.

To avoid that situation, we can use Firebase Crashlytics. It is quite easy to implement and tries to show the crashes of your app in Firebase Console as soon as possible. So that you can get rid of the crash before it hit a large number of users.

Firebase Crashlytics Screenshot of my Android App

Crashlytics can intelligently group the crashes and highlight the circumstances.

Crashlytics supports Android, iOS, and Unity only.

b) Performance Monitoring

After your product is deployed, it’s very crucial to check its performance. Not only it will help you to remove the bugs, but it will also be very useful when you are making a decision regarding your product.

Firebase Performance Monitoring is services that can help you get detailed insights into your iOS, Android or Web app.

You implement the performance monitoring SDK and the reports will be available on Firebase Console.

There are three types of traces that performance monitor SDK monitor for you before I explain those first understand what is a trace?

A trace is a report of performance data measured between two points in time in your app.

Screenshot of Firebase Performance Monitoring containing dummy data

Now the three types of traces are as below:

i) Automatic duration traces

Performance monitor automatically includes several default duration traces

For native apps (Android, iOS) it includes

App Start traces – measure the time between when the user opens the app and when it becomes responsive

Foreground and Background traces: shows how your app performs when in foreground and background

For web apps, the automatic duration trace is page load, which breaks down into the following metrics:

first paint and first contentful paint — measure when the browser starts to render your app versus when the user first sees actual content on the page

first input delay — offers insight into how quickly the browser can respond to the user’s first interaction with your app (rather than it being busy loading and parsing your app’s resources, like a large JavaScript bundle)

DOM-related events — offer insights about possible user perception of your app’s performance by measuring how long it takes to load and parse your app’s resources (like HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and images)

ii) Custom traces

In Custom traces, you define the start and end of the trace and then the task performed within that scope will be monitored. Moreover, you can also configure a custom trace to record custom metrics.

iii) HTTP/S Network Request Traces

HTTP/S Network Request Traces are helpful to monitor the network-related tasks. An HTTP/S Network Request Trace is a report that captures the time between when your app issues a request and when that requested is completed

c) Test Lab

As we all know that Android is an open-source Operating System, which means that anyone can use or modify it, so a mobile company only needs to create hardware, inject the Android and device is ready.

There are many mobile manufacturing companies out there, creating a variety of mobiles – different sizes and specs – all running Android.

So as an Android Developer, you have to provide a great user experience across all those Android devices. It could be hard to test your app on all Android versions and screen-sized Android devices.

Here Firebase Test Lab comes into action.

Firebase Test Lab lets you test your Android app on Real Android Devices hosted in a Google Data Center.

Test Lab helps you to find issues that only occur on specific device configurations (for example, a Nexus 5 running a specific Android API level and specific locale settings). You can run the Robo Test, Instrumentation Test or a Game Loop.

They are all different types of tests that are more than enough to get the results. At the end of the test, Firebase Test labs provide you logs, screenshots, activity maps, video, and performance reports.

It can help you a lot to understand the workflow of your app across different Android devices.

Firebase Test Labs supports Android only because only Android Contains a large variety of devices and I think it is logical.

3. Grow Products

Now comes my favorite pack of Firebase Products. Grow products are more intended for the growth of the product. It can help you perform A/B Testing, engage with users, check insights and much more. Let’s jump into it.

a) Firebase Analytics

Firebase Analytics is my most favorite product.

Not only because it is easy to implement, but also because it’s free.

Moreover, it helps you to understand how people use your product. So that you can make an informed decision when marketing your product.

It automatically captures a number of events and user properties and also allows you to create custom events.

Screenshot of Firebase Analytics containing my android app data

The captured data then becomes available to the Firebase Console dashboard. This dashboard provides detailed insights about your data — from summary data such as active users and demographics to more detailed data such as identifying your most purchased items

It is highly compatible with other Firebase Services like it automatically logs the corresponding event when a notification is opened which was sent using Firebase Cloud Messaging.

b) Predictions

Predictions a little new to the Firebase Products list but it could be very helpful. It just reads the analytical data of your app, applies machine learning to it and then creates dynamic user segments based on your users’ predicted behavior.

These predictions are automatically available for use with Firebase Remote Config, the notifications composer, Firebase In-App Messaging, and A/B Testing.

Screenshot of Firebase prediction containing my android app data

Like it can create a segment of users which are more likely to perform certain In-App purchase in your app, and make it available to Firebase Remote Config, which then you can use to provide discounts or encourage them to perform the In-App Purchase

c) Cloud Messaging

Notifications are a great way to grab the attention of your dormant users, they help us re-engage the user and increases the chance of using the app. That’s why Google-branded it is a Grow Product.

Firebase Cloud Messaging or often known is FCM is a perfect messaging solution. You can send push notification using FCM.

Push notification is some simple messages that appear with a notification in the notification tray or like a popup messaging – depends on the platform.

Push Notifications are usually pushed from some backend server like Firebase in this case. It is the way to deliver users a messaging without opening the app. It is a highly effective tool for developers and advertisers to re-target/re-engage your dormant users.

Screenshot of Firebase Cloud Messaging containing dummy data

Firebase Cloud allows two types of push notifications to be sent

Notification Messages: handled by FCM SDK

Data Messages: handled by the client application

I already explained in detail about how you can send push notifications in Android.

d) Remote Config

Probably the best free tool out there for executing A/B Testing. You can change the behavior and appearance of your app for an unlimited number of devices. You can target the user based on the platform, device language, country/region and much more.

For example, if you want to show a greeting message to the users of India for their local event then you can do that easily by using Remote Config.

Screenshot of Firebase Remote Config containing dummy data

Don’t forget to ask a question from our Android experts. Your every question will be answered in the below comment section.

FAQs

What is Firebase?

Firebase is a mobile and web application development platform developed by Firebase, Inc in 2011. Later, it was acquired by Google in 2014.

How many products Firebase has?

Firebase has 19 products that can help you accelerate your app development.

What is Firebase Database?

Firebase Database is quite a confusing thing for beginners. If you go to the Firebase Console, open any project and open the Database section from the left sidebar then there would be two options waiting for you.

What is Firebase Cloud Storage?

Firebase Cloud Storage provides the easiest way to save binary files – most often images but you can save anything like a video, pdf, etc. – to Google Cloud Storage directly from the client.

What is Firebase Test Lab?

Firebase Test Lab lets you test your Android app on Real Android Devices hosted in a Google Data Center.

The post What is Firebase? 15 Reasons to Master It appeared first on Firebase Tutorials.

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via Firebase Tutorials

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In this guide, you’ll learn how you can send push notifications using Firebase in Android.

Excited?

Related: Firebase VS AWS 

Let’s get started.

Curious to see the end result of this tutorial? Watch!

What is a Push Notification?

Push notification is a simple message that appears with a notification in the notification tray or like a popup messaging – depends on the platform.

Push Notifications are usually pushed from backend servers to the clients like Firebase in this case. It is the way to deliver users a message without opening the app. It is a highly effective tool for developers and advertisers to re-target/re-engage your dormant users.

Push notifications boost app engagement by 88% (Source: Localytics Data Team)

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As you can see, the push notifications get benefits most from the eCommerce stores since users are excited about the new products.

What is FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging)

Firebase Cloud Messaging is a new version of Google Cloud Messaging or GCM that is a cloud cross-platform messaging solution. You can use Firebase Cloud Messaging for any kind of end-user device including iOS, Android, or even web at no-cost.

Firebase allows two types of messages:

Firebase SDK automatically handles notifications messages. All you need to do is to implement the Firebase SDK and start sending messages from Firebase Console.

The client app handles data messages.

NOTE: In this tutorial, we’ll be sending a notification message only.

Firebase Push Notification Tutorial (Step by Step)

Here is the step by step guide how you can implement Firebase push notification with an example:

1. Things You Need to Get Started

Android Studio

A Firebase account (you can use the same Google account – no extra sign up required)

A real Android device or an emulator to test your Android App

2. Create an Application in Android Studio

Open Android Studio and create a new project.

Enter the app details – the app name, domain name, location – and leave the rest as default i.e., the empty activity, and minimum Android version. In my case, the package name of my app is ‘com.firebasetutorials.testingnotification’ but you can have one of your choices.

After Android Studio finishes the building App for you, leave it, and move to the next step, we will soon get back to Android Studio.

Creating Application in Android Studio for Firebase Push Notification

  3. Setup Firebase for Push Notification

There are three steps to set up Firebase for your Android app notification:

Signing up

Creating a Project

Registering an App

Sign up for Firebase

Before anything, you need a Firebase account. Click here and signup for Firebase Console or sign in using your Google account.

Create a Project

Now visit the Firebase Console and hit ‘Add Project’. Enter Project name, select Country/region. And hit ‘Create Project’

Create project at Firebase Console for Android Push Notification

Register App with Firebase

There are three simple steps to get your Android App Registered with Firebase:

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Register App

After your first project is completed, you’ll see a page like below. Hit ‘Add Firebase to your Android App’

Adding Android app at Firebase Console for Android Push Notification

Enter ‘Android package name’. In my case, it is ‘com.firebasetutorials.testingnotification’ – you can enter one of your choices.

NOTE: Package name should be exactly the same as the app package name. Otherwise it will not work.

Enter ‘App nickname’. I’m entering the ‘Testing Notification App’ – you can enter anything;  it has nothing to do with your app.

The third field is for ‘Debug signing certificate SHA-1’ you can skip it at this point as we are not going to use Firebase Authentication.

Hit ‘Register App’ to get your app registered with Firebase

Registering App for Firebase Console Notification

  Download Config Files

Hit ‘Download google-services.json’ button to download a JSON file. Save the JSON file under the app directory of your Android Studio project we just recently created.

Downloading Config file for Android from Firebase Console

Add Firebase SDK

After downloading the JSON file under the App Directory of your project hit Continue on Firebase Console Dialog.

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In Android Studio, open build.gradle file. You will find it in the project directory, but not the one that is in your app directory. Add the following line of code inside dependencies:

classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:3.2.0'

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After adding the dependencies, your project will look like this:

Added classpath in build.gradle for Firebase Push Notification in Android

After adding this, you will see a yellow message, asking you to sync the project. You can ignore it at the moment. Now head over to app-level build.gradle file. You will find it under the app directory of your project.

Add the following lines of in dependencies section

compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-core:11.8.0' //Firebase Messaging library for sending push notifications compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-messaging:11.8.0'

And at the end, outside of the dependencies section, add the following line and hit ‘Sync Now’

apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'

And your build.gradle file will look like this:

Implement Firebase SDK in Android Studio for Push notification | Build.gradle (App) Screenshot

That’s all we need to do in Android Studio.

Send Notification from Firebase Console

Get back to Firebase Console. Open the Firebase project, on the left pane select ‘Notification’ or click here

Firebase Notification in Firebase Console

  Hit ‘SEND YOUR FIRST MESSAGE’

Send First Notification in Firebase Console

And you’ll see the ‘Compose Message‘ form, where you can enter the details.

In ‘Message Text‘ enter the message that you want to be displayed in the Notification Bar of your Android App

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In ‘Message Label‘ you can enter the message nickname, it has to do nothing with the notification at the client-side, it is just for saving purpose in Firebase Console.

In the ‘Delivery Date‘ drop-down, you can select the delivery time. If you select ‘Send Now‘ your message will be sent and displayed instantly. If you select ‘Send Later’ then some more options will be displayed asking for when you want to send the notification to your users.

You can mark the ‘Recipient Time Zone‘ option and your message will be delivered according to the recipient time zone or you can provide any custom timezone.

Recipient Time Zone is very useful because sometimes we want to send notification on some custom events like New Year. Due to timezone differences, your message can be shown to users before New Year and make them feel annoyed. So it’s better to use the ‘Recipient Time Zone‘ option with that kind of notification.

Send Later Option in Firebase Console

In this tutorial, we will select the ‘Send Now’ option to make the notification sent right now.

In the target section, we can target a custom range of users depending on their behavior and much more. We will be covering that all in a whole new section.

In the next drop-down, select the app package name. You can select multiple apps simultaneously, but they all need to be on the same project.

After that, there are ‘Conversion events’ options, here you can track the analytics data of your notification. The ‘Sent‘ and ‘Opened‘ are added by default, but you can add more.

Sent and Opened are shown in the Notification Section in Firebase to show you how many users received the notification message and how many opened it. We are not adding a conversion event for the sake of this tutorial.

In the end, there are few ‘Advanced Options’, but we will keep the default. Those are for Data Messages; we will cover that all in detail later.

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Now hit, ‘Send Message‘ to make the notification sent to the client app.

Your Notification will be displayed on your Android Phone, and if you tap on that notification, it will open the app.

You can watch the video above if you don’t understand the text.

Ask any questions in the comment section below, our experts will be happy to help you at no extra cost.

The post How to Send Push Notifications With Firebase in Android (Guide) appeared first on Firebase Tutorials.