Add Firebase to your Unity project

Power up your Unity games with our Firebase Unity SDKs.

To show how easy it is to plug Firebase into your Unity project, we made a sample game, MechaHamster. If you want to try out adding Firebase to a game, use the starter version that's on GitHub. If you want a completed version, check out the versions in the App Store or the Google Play Store.

MechaHamster (GitHub)

MechaHamster (App Store)

MechaHamster (Play Store)

Find out more information about powering up your games with Firebase at our Firebase games page.

Already added Firebase to your Unity project? Make sure that you're using the latest version of the Firebase Unity SDK.

Prerequisites

• Install Unity 2021 LTS or later. Support for Unity 2020 is considered deprecated, and will no longer be actively supported after the next major release. Earlier versions may also be compatible but won't be actively supported.

• (Apple platforms only) Install the following:

  • Xcode 13.3.1 or higher
  • CocoaPods 1.12.0 or higher

• Make sure that your Unity project meets these requirements:

  • For iOS — targets iOS 13 or higher
  • For tvOS - targets tvOS 13 or higher
  • For Android — targets API level 21 (Lollipop) or higher

• Set up a physical device or use an emulator to run your app.

  • For Apple platforms — Set up a physical device or use an iOS or tvOS simulator.

    Do you want to use Cloud Messaging?

    For Cloud Messaging on iOS or tvOS, here are the prerequisites:

    • Set up a physical device.
    • Obtain an Apple Push Notification Authentication Key for your Apple Developer account.
    • Enable Push Notifications in XCode under App > Capabilities.

  • For Android — Emulators must use an emulator image with Google Play.

• Sign into Firebase using your Google account.

If you don't already have a Unity project and just want to try out a Firebase product, you can download one of our quickstart samples.

Step 1: Create a Firebase project

Before you can add Firebase to your Unity project, you need to create a Firebase project to connect to your Unity project. Visit Understand Firebase Projects to learn more about Firebase projects.

Step 2: Register your app with Firebase

You can register one or more apps or games to connect with your Firebase project.

1. Go to the Firebase console.

2. In the center of the project overview page, click the Unity icon (plat_unity) to launch the setup workflow.

   If you've already added an app to your Firebase project, click Add app to display the platform options.

3. Select which build target of your Unity project that you’d like to register, or you can even select to register both targets now at the same time.

4. Enter your Unity project’s platform-specific ID(s).

   • For iOS — Enter your Unity project’s iOS ID in the iOS bundle ID field.

   • For Android — Enter your Unity project’s Android ID in the Android package name field.
     The terms package name and application ID are often used interchangeably.

   Where do you find your Unity project's ID?

   Open your Unity project in your Unity IDE, then navigate to the settings section for each platform:

   • For iOS — Navigate to Build Settings > iOS.

   • For Android — Navigate to Android > Player Settings > Other Settings.

   Your Unity project's ID is the Bundle Identifier value (example ID: com.yourcompany.yourproject).

5. (Optional) Enter your Unity project’s platform-specific nickname(s).
   These nicknames are internal, convenience identifiers and are only visible to you in the Firebase console.

6. Click Register app.

Step 3: Add Firebase configuration files

1. Obtain your platform-specific Firebase configuration file(s) in the Firebase console setup workflow.

   • For iOS — Click Download GoogleService-Info.plist.

   • For Android — Click Download google-services.json.

   What do you need to know about this config file?

   • The Firebase config file contains unique, but non-secret identifiers for your project. To learn more about this config file, visit Understand Firebase Projects.

   • You can download your Firebase config file again at any time.

   • Make sure the config file name is not appended with additional characters, like (2).

2. Open the Project window of your Unity project, then move your config file(s) into the Assets folder.

3. Back in the Firebase console, in the setup workflow, click Next.

Step 4: Add Firebase Unity SDKs

1. In the Firebase console, click Download Firebase Unity SDK, then unzip the SDK somewhere convenient.

   • You can download the Firebase Unity SDK again at any time.

   • The Firebase Unity SDK is not platform-specific.

2. In your open Unity project, navigate to Assets > Import Package > Custom Package.

3. From the unzipped SDK, select the supported Firebase products that you want to use in your app.

   Analytics enabled

   • Add the Firebase package for Google Analytics: FirebaseAnalytics.unitypackage
   • Add the packages for any other Firebase products you want to use in your app. For example, to use Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Database:
     FirebaseAuth.unitypackage and FirebaseDatabase.unitypackage

   Analytics not enabled

   Add the packages for the Firebase products you want to use in your app. For example, to use Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Database:
   FirebaseAuth.unitypackage and FirebaseDatabase.unitypackage

4. In the Import Unity Package window, click Import.

5. Back in the Firebase console, in the setup workflow, click Next.

Step 5: Confirm Google Play services version requirements

The Firebase Unity SDK for Android requires Google Play services, which must be up-to-date before the SDK can be used.

Add the following using statement and initialization code at the start of your application. You can check for and optionally update Google Play services to the version that is required by the Firebase Unity SDK before calling any other methods in the SDK.

using Firebase.Extensions;

Firebase.FirebaseApp.CheckAndFixDependenciesAsync().ContinueWithOnMainThread(task => {
  var dependencyStatus = task.Result;
  if (dependencyStatus == Firebase.DependencyStatus.Available) {
    // Create and hold a reference to your FirebaseApp,
    // where app is a Firebase.FirebaseApp property of your application class.
       app = Firebase.FirebaseApp.DefaultInstance;

    // Set a flag here to indicate whether Firebase is ready to use by your app.
  } else {
    UnityEngine.Debug.LogError(System.String.Format(
      "Could not resolve all Firebase dependencies: {0}", dependencyStatus));
    // Firebase Unity SDK is not safe to use here.
  }
});

You’re all set! Your Unity project is registered and configured to use Firebase.

If you're having trouble getting set up, though, visit the Unity troubleshooting & FAQ.

Set up a desktop workflow (beta)

When you're creating a game, it's often much easier to test your game in the Unity editor and on desktop platforms first, then deploy and test on mobile devices later in development. To support this workflow, we provide a subset of the Firebase Unity SDKs which can run on Windows, macOS, Linux, and from within the Unity editor.

1. Set up a desktop-platform Unity project by following the same instructions as for a mobile platform (start with the Register your app with Firebase step above).

2. Run your Unity project in the Unity IDE or select to build your Unity project for desktop.

3. (Optional) Run your Unity project in Edit Mode.

   The Firebase Unity SDK can also be run in Unity's edit mode, allowing its use in editor plugins.

   1. When you create a FirebaseApp used by the editor, don't use the default instance.

   2. Instead, provide a unique name to the FirebaseApp.Create() call.

      This is important to avoid a conflict in options between the instance used by the Unity IDE and the instance used by your Unity project.

Supported Firebase products

Learn more about the Unity Firebase libraries in the reference documentation.

Available Firebase libraries for mobile

The Firebase Unity SDK supports the following Firebase products on Apple and Android:

Available Firebase libraries for desktop

The Firebase Unity SDK includes desktop workflow support for a subset of products, enabling certain parts of Firebase to be used in the Unity editor and in standalone desktop builds on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Firebase provides the remaining desktop libraries as stub (non-functional) implementations for convenience when building for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Therefore, you don't need to conditionally compile code to target the desktop.

Next steps

• Explore sample Firebase apps.

• Prepare to launch your app:

  • Set up budget alerts for your project in the Google Cloud console.
  • Monitor the Usage and billing dashboard in the Firebase console to get an overall picture of your project's usage across multiple Firebase services.
  • Review the Firebase launch checklist.

• Having trouble with Firebase and your Unity project? Visit the Unity troubleshooting & FAQ.