Platforms

Learn the platforms React Native Firebase SDK supports.

Status

By default React Native Firebase supports multiple platforms using the native Firebase SDK for the specific platform:

• Android
• iOS

However, for platforms that we don't provide a Native Module for, React Native Firebase instead implements a fallback Firebase JS SDK implementation to support these 'Other' platforms, e.g.;

• Web
• macOS
• Windows
• ...and any other RN based environment.

Below is a table outlining which Firebase modules are supported on each platform in React Native Firebase:

• 🟢 (supported)
• 🟠 (partial support) - see notes below
• 🔴 (not supported)

Other Platforms

Whenever the React Native Firebase SDK is running on platforms other than Android or iOS, the internal implementation uses a fallback platform which is implemented in JavaScript, using the Firebase JavaScript Modular SDK.

No implementation changes are required to use the React Native Firebase SDK on other platforms (with the exception of Async Storage detailed below), as the JavaScript implementation is automatically used when a native platform is not available. This allows you to use the same API across all platforms, regardless of the underlying implementation.

There are however some minor limitations or differences in behavior compared to the native platforms. Where a particular method is not supported, an error will be thrown with a code of unsupported to indicate the method is not available on the current platform.

Further details of Firebase service specific limitations are summarized below.

Async Storage

Some services (currently Auth and Analytics) for our 'Other' platforms implementation require a Async Storage implementation to be provided to enable persistence, React Native Firebase provides an API to set this implementation:

import firebase from '@react-native-firebase/app';
import AsyncStorage from '@react-native-async-storage/async-storage';

// Before initializing Firebase set the Async Storage implementation
// that will be used to persist user sessions.
firebase.setReactNativeAsyncStorage(AsyncStorage);

// Then initialize Firebase as normal.
await firebase.initializeApp({ ... });

Note: we use @react-native-async-storage/async-storage as an example, you should use the Async Storage implementation that is appropriate for your platform that you are targeting.

If you do not provide an Async Storage implementation, we use an in memory implementation which will result in resetting the data every time your app is restarted, in the case of Firebase Auth this means your users have to sign in again.

Analytics

The other platform implementation of Analytics does not capture automatic metrics like screen view, you must call logEvent and other logging based methods to send your events to Firebase.

• Screen Tracking Guide

App Check

App Check for other platforms only supports the CustomProvider provider. Here's how to setup your own custom provider:

• Implement server support to get tokens
• Create a custom provider in your app:

import firebase, { CustomProvider, initializeAppCheck } from '@react-native-firebase/app-check';

const myCustomProvider = new CustomProvider({
  async getToken: () => {
    // TODO: Get the token from your server, e.g. if using a cloud function call the function.
    const tokenFromServer = 'some-token-from-server';
    const expirationFromServer = 1000 * 60 * 60; // 1 hour
    const appCheckToken = {
      token: tokenFromServer,
      expireTimeMillis: expirationFromServer * 1000
    };
    return appCheckToken;
  }
});

// Configure the provider (modular API)
initializeAppCheck(firebaseApp, {
  provider: myCustomProvider
});

// Or configure the provider (v8 API)
firebase.appCheck().initializeAppCheck({ provider: myCustomProvider });

Authentication

Multi-factor authentication is not supported on other platforms.

Phone authentication methods are unsupported, specifically:

• signInWithProvider
• signInWithPhoneNumber
• verifyPhoneNumberForMultiFactor
• confirmationResultConfirm
• verifyPhoneNumber
• reauthenticateWithProvider

Database

Offline persistence is not supported on other platforms.

Unsupported methods:

• keepSynced - for offline persistence

Firestore

For performance reasons and to reduce the size of the JavaScript bundle, the Other platform implementation in React Native Firebase uses the JavaScript lite SDK, which does not support methods related to offline & persistence.

Specifically, the following methods are not supported:

• loadBundle
• clearPersistence - for offline persistence
• disableNetwork - for offline persistence
• enableNetwork - for offline persistence
• namedQuery
• onSnapshot (for both CollectionReference & DocumentReference)
• GetOptions.source

Storage

No-op methods:

• setMaxDownloadRetryTime (does not throw, but has no effect)

Unsupported methods:

• writeToFile
• putFile

Known Issues

Known issues will be documented here and updated regularly.

• There are currently no known issues.