Firebase Destination
Destination Info
- Accepts Identify, and Track calls
- Refer to it as Firebase in the Integrations object
Components
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.
As of October 2019, Firebase replaced the legacy version of Google Analytics Classic for mobile devices. (If you used Google Analytics for mobile, see the migration guide.)
Segment’s Firebase destination code is open source and available on GitHub. You can view these repositories:
Consent mode
Google enforced consent on March 6, 2024 for European Economic Area (EEA) users. Learn more about consent mode and how to set it up.
Getting Started on Android
To start sending data to Firebase Analytics from your Android project, you’ll need to follow a few simple steps:
- Register your mobile app with Firebase at
https://console.firebase.google.com
- Once your app is registered, download the
google-services.json
file. -
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 uniquegoogle-services.json
file for each. - 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'
Note: The Firebase SDK requires android resources which are available on aar
packages. Use the aar
package when adding the Segment-Firebase SDK.
-
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" />
-
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
-
Register your app in the Firebase console and add the
GoogleService-Info.plist
to the root of your Xcode project. - Add the following dependency to your Podfile:
pod 'Segment-Firebase'
-
After adding the dependency, import the integration:
#import <Segment-Firebase/SEGFirebaseIntegrationFactory.h>
-
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:
- 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.
- Set up consent mode for your app if you haven’t already set it up.
- If you already set up consent mode for your app, upgrade it to consent mode v2.
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.
- Use yarn to add the
analytics-react-native-firebase
SDKs. (@segment/analytics-react-native-firebase
) - Add
import
statements to your code so you can access the SDKs. - Go to the
await analytics.setup
configuration in your code, and find (or add) theusing:
item. Add “Firebase” to the list of device-mode destinations in theusing
item. - Change to your iOS directory and run
pod install
. - Add the
analytics-react-native-firebase
module to yourbuild.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 youridentify
call, Segment triggerssetUserId
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):
Segment Event | Firebase Event |
---|---|
Products Searched | search |
Product List Viewed | view_item_list |
Product Viewed | view_item |
Product Clicked | select_content |
Product Shared | share |
Product Added | add_to_cart |
Product Added To Wishlist | add_to_wishlist |
Checkout Started | begin_checkout |
Promotion Viewed | present_offer |
Payment Info Entered | add_payment_info |
Order Completed | purchase |
Order Refunded | purchase_refund |
Property Mappings
Segment maps the followed Segment specced properties (left) to the corresponding Firebase event parameters (right):
Segment Property | Firebase Property | Accepted Value(s) |
---|---|---|
category | item_category | (String) “kitchen supplies” |
product_id | item_id | (String) “p1234” |
name | item_name | (String) “Le Creuset pot” |
price | price | (double) 1.0 |
quantity | quantity | (long) 1 |
query | search_term | (String) “Le Creuset” |
shipping | shipping | (double) 2.0 |
tax | tax | (double) 0.5 |
total | value | (double) 3.99 or (long) 3.99 |
revenue | value | (double) 3.99 or (long) 3.99 |
order_id | transaction_id | (String) “o555636” |
currency | currency | (String) “USD” |
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 here.
Changes from iOS v1 to v2 Beta
We have been working hard bringing our 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. (we were a major version behind)
- Removes
subspec
which pulls in the deprecatedpod appIndexing
. - Fixes a crash when passing a non NSString value through
traits
onIdentify
. - 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. We suggest 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 we don’t suggest this, 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 our documentation here.
Let us know if you have any questions. We recommend upgrading as soon as possible, and let us know 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.
Setting | Description |
---|---|
Deep Link URL Scheme (iOS) | string . For iOS, if you’re using Firebase for Deep Linking, we’ll set this as the deepLinkURLScheme before initializing Firebase. |
This page was last modified: 08 Mar 2024
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