Firebase Destination

Destination Info

• Accepts Identify, and Track calls
• Refer to it as Firebase in the Integrations object

Components

• iOS
• Android

Connection Modes

Device-mode	Cloud-mode
Web	Web
Mobile	Mobile
Server	Server

Firebase is Google’s platform for mobile apps. The Segment Firebase destination requires that you bundle the Firebase SDK with your project. The Segment-wrapped destination code then runs on the user’s device, and sends its tracking calls to the Firebase API endpoints, and a copy to Segment for archiving.

Segment’s Firebase destination code is open source and available on GitHub. You can view these repositories:

• Android
• iOS
• Kotlin
• Swift

Getting Started on Android

To start sending data to Firebase Analytics from your Android project, you’ll need to follow a few simple steps:

1. Register your mobile app with Firebase at https://console.firebase.google.com
2. Once your app is registered, download the google-services.json file.

3. Copy the file to your Application’s app folder. This file contains all necessary configurations and cannot be used across multiple apps. If you’re configuring Firebase for other apps, create a new view in your Firebase console and download a unique google-services.json file for each.

4. Add the modules to build.gradle. Add the Segment-Firebase SDK and apply the Google Services plugin at the end of the file:

buildscript {
    dependencies {
        // Add these lines
        implementation 'com.segment.analytics.android:analytics:4.+'
        implementation 'com.segment.analytics.android.integrations:firebase:+@aar'
    }
}

// Add to the bottom of the file
apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'

5. Add the modules to the Project-level build.gradle file. Add Google Services dependency and their Maven repo location to repositories:

   buildscript {
    dependencies {
      // Add this line
      classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:3.1.0'
    }
   }
   
   allprojects {
    repositories {
      // Add this line
      maven { url 'https://maven.google.com' }
    }
   }
   

   Add these permissions to your AndroidManifest.xml:

      <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
      <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
   

6. Finally, register the dependency with the Segment SDK in your application subclass, as in our Android library documentation.

   Analytics analytics = new Analytics.Builder(context, writeKey)
     .use(FirebaseIntegration.FACTORY)
     ...
     .build();
   

   Firebase periodically updates the Android configuration requirements for loading their SDK in your app. To check if your Android configuration is compatible with for your version of Firebase, check Google’s Firebase release notes.

   You can also check the Segment-Firebase changelog to find the version of the Firebase SDK that Segment requires in each of the Segment-Firebase SDK version. For example, Segment-Firebase 1.3.1 includes Firebase Core 17.0.1 as a dependency.

   By default, Segment bundles only Firebase/Core which is Firebase’s mobile analytics offering. You can see the other available Firebase dependencies and features in the Firebase documentation.

Getting Started on iOS

1. Register your app in the Firebase console and add the GoogleService-Info.plist to the root of your Xcode project.

2. Add the following dependency to your Podfile:

   pod 'Segment-Firebase'
   

3. After adding the dependency, import the integration:

   #import <Segment-Firebase/SEGFirebaseIntegrationFactory.h>
   

4. Finally, register the dependency with the Segment SDK:

   [config use:[SEGFirebaseIntegrationFactory instance]];
   

By default, Segment only bundles Firebase/Core which is Firebase’s Analytics offering. You can see the other available Firebase pods and features here.

Consent mode

Consent mode is a feature provided by Google in the context of its products, particularly the Gtag library and Google Analytics. As of March 6, 2024, Google announced that consent mode must function for European Economic Area (EEA) users, otherwise data from EEA users won’t process.

Consent mode in the Gtag library and Google Analytics is designed to help website owners comply with privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union. It allows website owners to adjust how these tools use and collect data based on user consent.

With consent mode, you can configure your website to dynamically adjust the tracking behavior of the Gtag library and Google Analytics based on the user’s consent status. If a user provides consent to data processing, both the Gtag library and Google Analytics can collect and use that data for analysis. If a user doesn’t provide consent, both tools limit data collection to essential functions, helping businesses respect user privacy preferences.

Consent mode may involve updates to your sources outside of Segment, such as incorporating a consent management system for consent functionality.

To set up consent mode for Google Firebase:

1. Update your app’s SDK to a version that supports consent mode v2.
   • Android apps must use Firebase Android Analytics SDK version 21.5.0 or later.
   • iOS apps must use Firebase Apple SDK version 10.17.0 or later.
2. Set up consent mode for your app if you haven’t already set it up.
   • Android: Set up consent mode for Android apps
   • iOS: Set up consent mode for iOS apps
3. If you already set up consent mode for your app, upgrade it to consent mode v2.
   • Android: Upgrade to consent mode v2 for Android apps
   • iOS: Upgrade to consent mode v2 for iOS apps

Setting up Firebase with Analytics-React-Native

If you use Segment’s older React Native source library, you must explicitly bundle the mobile SDKs for both iOS and Android with your project.

1. Use yarn to add the analytics-react-native-firebase SDKs. (@segment/analytics-react-native-firebase)
2. Add import statements to your code so you can access the SDKs.
3. Go to the await analytics.setup configuration in your code, and find (or add) the using: item. Add “Firebase” to the list of device-mode destinations in the using item.
4. Change to your iOS directory and run pod install.
5. Add the analytics-react-native-firebase module to your build.gradle file. (See Step.4 of Getting Started on Android)

For React Native 2.0 you can reference the install guide.

Identify

When you call identify Segment will map to the corresponding Firebase Analytics calls:

• If there is a userId on your identify call, Segment triggers setUserId using the Firebase SDK
• If there are traits included, Segment will set user properties for each trait you include on the identify call

You can use these traits to create audiences and views to analyze your users’ behavior.

Note: Google prohibits sending PII to Firebase unless “robust notice” is given to your app users. For iOS apps, some Analytics features, such as audiences and campaign attribution, and some user properties, such as Age and Interests, require the AdSupport framework to be enabled.

Learn more about Firebase’s reporting dashboard here.

Firebase has strict requirements for User Property names; they must:

• Begin with a letter (not a number or symbol, including an underscore)
• Contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores
• Be no longer than 40 characters

User Property values must be fewer than 100 characters.

You are limited to 25 unique user properties per Firebase Console.

Segment automatically:

• Trims leading and trailing whitespace from user property names
• Replaces spaces with underscores
• Trims property names to 40 characters (Android only)

Firebase automatically collects these user properties.

Track

When you call track Segment will log the event with Firebase. Firebase automatically tracks the events listed here and it will still do so when bundling with Segment.

Firebase has a limit of 500 distinctly named events so it pays off to be intentional in what you track.

When you call track, Segment maps from the Segment spec to those that match Firebase’s spec. For anything that does not match, Segment will pass the event to Firebase as a custom event. Custom parameters cannot be seen directly in the Firebase Analytics dashboard but they can be used as filters in Audiences.

Like with user properties, Segment will perform the following transformations on both your event names and event parameters. Unlike user properties, you do not need to pre-define event parameters in your Firebase dashboard.

• Trims leading and trailing whitespace from property names
• Replaces spaces with underscores
• Trims property names to 40 characters (Android only)

Event parameter values must be fewer than 100 characters.

Event Mappings

Segment adheres to Firebase’s semantic event specification and maps the following Segment specced events (left) to the corresponding Firebase events (right):

Property Mappings

Segment maps the followed Segment specced properties (left) to the corresponding Firebase event parameters (right):

Passing Revenue and Currency

Ecommerce events containing “revenue” or “total” must also include the appropriate ISO 4217 “currency” string for revenue data to populate to the Firebase dashboard. If a “currency” value is not included, Segment default to “USD”.

Properties properties = new Properties()
        .putValue("orderId", "p966540")
        .putValue("revenue", 25.00)
        .putCurrency("USD");


Analytics.with(this).track("Order Completed", properties);

Screen

Segment doesn’t map screen events to Firebase - that’s because Firebase’s SDK collects screen information out of the box for you.

For Android, Segment passes contextual screen information into each screen view on each activity’s onResume callback. To ensure that screen names are labeled properly, Segment recommends adding a label value to each of your activities in your app’s AndroidManifest.xml file. At the moment, Firebase does not allow disabling automatic screen tracking for Android.

For iOS, you can configure recordScreenViews which will automatically track screen views, or pass in a screen manually using a screen call. You should be able to disable the Automatic Screen reporting by adding the plist flag FirebaseScreenReportingEnabled to Info.plist and set its value to NO (Boolean).

Google Analytics for Firebase iOS does NOT support the case of manual-only screen reporting. Firebase only supports automatic + manual screen reporting or no screen reporting at all.

Firebase Dynamic Linking (iOS only)

Firebase Dynamic Links are smart URLs that can change behavior dynamically depending on the platform where the user clicks them. Use them in web, email, social media, referral and physical promotions to increase user acquisition, retention and lifetime value. Key features include ability to survive app installs, controlling user experience depending on what platform they access the link on and knowing which content and campaigns are working using tracking in the Firebase console. Check out Firebase’s Docs here.

To use Firebase Dynamic Links, add the below to your podfile.

pod 'Firebase/DynamicLinks'

Then, enter the deep link URL scheme in your Segment Firebase destination settings. Here’s a sample app delegate that shows how to implement the Dynamic Linking Logic.

Conversion Tracking and Adwords Conversions

Firebase is Google’s recommended method for reporting conversions to Adwords. To use Firebase, track the conversion events as you normally would with Segment and Segment will send them through to Firebase.

Troubleshooting

Firebase has great logging. If you are having any issues, you can enable debug mode as outlined in Google’s Debug events documentation.

Changes from iOS v1 to v2 Beta

Segment has been working hard bringing the Firebase iOS beta integration up to date with the native Firebase SDK. The new version 2.0.0-beta has a number of changes that you should be aware of before you upgrade.

• Bumps to Firebase version 4.0. (Segment’s integration was a major version behind)
• Removes subspec which pulls in the deprecated pod appIndexing .
• Fixes a crash when passing a non NSString value through traits on Identify.
• Fixes Mapping to Firebase logEvent and Firebase reserved Params and Constants.

The last point is important, as the mappings are different in this new version and will change which events you seen in your Firebase dash. Segment recommends that you make this upgrade, as this new naming convention coincides with Firebase’s semantic Constants and Params.

Even more exciting is that this new iOS SDK will have parity with the new Segment-Firebase Android SDK.

As a current user of Segment-Firebase iOS, you will be able to pull in the latest version by pinning pod 'Segment-Firebase', '~>2.0. While this is not recommended, if you are not ready to upgrade you can pin the old beta version at pod 'Segment-Firebase', '~>1.0.0'

For details on the new mapping, you can check out Segment’s Event mappings documentation.

Segment recommend upgrading as soon as possible. Reach out to support if you have any feedback about both the Firebase iOS and Android betas.

Settings

Segment lets you change these destination settings from the Segment app without having to touch any code.