Using Authentication in Firebase

Abstract

Most apps need to have some form of user identification. This allows them to set preferences, store data, and provide personalized experiences that are consistent across all of the user’s devices. In order to provide this, they need to provide the facility to sign up new users, sign in existing users, manage account details, and keep all of this data secure. It’s a very difficult and time-consuming process. From a user experience perspective, it’s also very difficult to get right – users tend to hesitate to give out information that is personally identifiable, such as their user name, password, security questions, and anything else that, should it leak, be damaging to them. As a result, they often prefer using credentials that they have already provided to a third party, and having that third party manage the sign-in for them – so, for example, if they have a Facebook account, they would like to use Facebook to verify to your app that they are who they say they are, without needing to give you their information also.