The Internet of Things has been the talk of the town lately. Since the arrival of the IoT ecosystem, there has been a massive surge in web-enabled smart devices. These devices use embedded systems to collect, send, and communicate data they acquire from their environment.

The whole cycle is largely dependent on real-time apps to connect the system of interrelated computing devices. One of the best use cases of the Google Firebase is to develop real-time IoT applications.

Today, I’ll be talking about how you can benefit from the Google Firebase for developing your real-time IoT apps. Before we begin, let’s understand why use firebase and how it’ll help develop real-time IoT apps quicker and easier than other traditional methods.

Why Use Firebase?

Developing real-time IoT applications is already quite a complex concept to start with. For beginners, getting started and running things quickly is the objective here to prepare a prototype. If you are one of those or want your IoT app prototype to be done quickly, then Firebase can make your life easy.

As we already know from the below article, Firebase offers several cloud-based services ranging from authentication to database, storage, and hosting. For real-time IoT app development, we’ll be using the Realtime Database and Hosting services of Firebase.

In IoT development, we can connect the smart device with the Realtime Database and make it send data periodically to the application. Achieving such a thing with other database types is a bit complex and requires extensive programming.

The Hosting service offered by Firebase can be used to host your real-time IoT apps rather than manage your web server. The best thing is it’s free (yet limited) and easy to configure as well.

Now that we know why we should use Firebase, let’s get to how to use it to develop IoT apps.

How to Develop Real-Time IoT Apps Using Google Firebase?

Let me break down the development process into a few simple steps that are easier to follow:

1. Configuring Firebase Realtime Database

This is a pretty simple step where you need to go to your Firebase console using your Google account and create a new project. Once done, visit the database section from Develop Tab to create a new Realtime Database and not a Cloud Firestore Database.

For developers developing IoT applications, Firebase Realtime Database is a crucial resource. The simplicity of configuration using the Firebase Console is one of the main benefits of using the Firebase Realtime Database. The management of database instances, security policies, and other Firebase services can all be done through this console's graphical user interface.

Firebase Realtime Database is a powerful resource for developing real-time, highly responsive applications in the context of Android IoT development. Developers can store data in real-time and ensure that it is synchronized across several devices by using Firebase Realtime Database.

Now, we have to give read and write permissions to allow hardware and software to access the Firebase Database. To do so, change permission to “True” from the rules tab. Start the process and proceed using the database for testing and prototype only and not for production. The database setup part is complete and it’s ready to use.

2. Develop Real-Time IoT App

For developing real-time IoT apps, there are many compatible frameworks such as MIT App Inventor, PlatformIO, and others that can be used. These platforms provide an intuitive, visual programming environment that allows everyone to build functional IoT apps.

Since IoT apps need to collect and send data in real-time, it needs modules to read and send data to the Firebase Database. Based on the IoT device configuration, you can start coding the firmware after figuring out what the program should do.

The Firebase Console is among the most important benefits of utilizing Firebase for developing IoT applications. The console makes it simple for developers to set up and configure the infrastructure services for their IoT app by providing a graphical user interface for managing database instances, security rules, and other Firebase services.

Through the Firebase IoT Arduino library, Firebase also offers support for IoT gadgets like Arduino, ESP8266, and Raspberry Pi. Real-time data synchronization and processing are made possible by the library by enabling MQTT connections between devices and Firebase.

It certainly needs to do tasks such as connecting to WiFi, opening a connection with Firebase, reading sensor values, and publishing those values to Firebase. Based on these activities, the IoT app creation should start with installing libraries. You can bypass this step by hiring a reliable outsourcing software and product development provider such as ashutec.

3. Integrating Firebase Credentials

Now comes the tricky part where you have to integrate Firebase credentials into your app. First, you’d have to change the Firebase token and Firebase URL. You can get the Firebase token from your Firebase dashboard. It’s a Database Secret Key. Similarly, get the Firebase URL and add it to the IoT app to build and complete your project.

Go to the Authentication section of the Firebase Console and turn on the specified authentication method. Many types of authentication are supported by Firebase, including phone numbers, Google, Facebook, email, and password.

Use the Firebase Authentication API offered by Firebase to authenticate users. Firebase generates an access token that may be used to access the Firebase Realtime Database after the user has been authorized.

Building IoT apps for Android with Firebase Realtime Database requires integrating Firebase Credentials. Developers can activate authentication, set up security constraints, and use Firebase Analytics to monitor user behavior by following the steps above and utilizing the Firebase Console. This makes the IoT app a great tool for developing IoT apps since it guarantees the IoT app is extremely responsive, captivating, and safe.

4. Hosting the App

For hosting apps, first, the app needs to be created locally. For the same, start by installing the Firebase CLI using NodeJS or npm. Once the setup is complete, start by creating a dashboard UI. Import the firebase dependencies to make the dashboard UI ready to be used.

Developers may analyze user activity and use information with Firebase Analytics to enhance the app's functionality and user experience. Developers can find sections of the app that require work and optimize the app as necessary by evaluating the data gathered by Firebase Analytics.

In the development of IoT apps for Android, hosting the app is an essential step. The Firebase Console and Firebase Hosting provide an easy and effective method for deploying and scaling apps. Moreover, Firebase Analytics offers perceptions of user behavior, allowing developers to enhance the functionality and user experience of the app. These resources enable developers to create IoT applications that are user-friendly, responsive, and engaging.

Once the app becomes available in the local environment, it’s time to go beyond that to make it available to the world by using Firebase Hosting. You can go ahead and deploy the app and show it to the world. You can open the app and see the values getting changed in real-time in Firebase Database.

Conclusion

Creating a real-time IoT application is a complex process but as we have seen, doing so becomes easy using Google Firebase. With this article, I have just scratched the surface only, there are still many things that need to be done in the background. Since developing the Internet of Things is quite complex, I encourage you to take help from experts such as ashutec.

Ashutec Solutions Pvt Ltd. is a team of well-versed experts and qualified programmers to build real-time IoT apps using Firebase solutions. We have a proven track record of developing the most impeccable, scalable, and maintainable software and product solutions. So, you can rest assured and rely on our outsourcing services.

Contact us here or write to us at connect@ashutec.com for more detailed information on how we can help you with your IoT app development project.

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