React Native Firebase Analytics: Setup Guide (2026)

What is Firebase Analytics?

Firebase Analytics, also called Google Analytics for Firebase, is Google's free analytics for mobile apps. It's part of Firebase, Google's platform of app services such as authentication, databases, crash reporting and analytics.

Firebase Analytics reports on four things you'll use to improve your app:

• Events: Actions users take in your app, such as opening it, viewing a product or finishing a level.

• User properties: Attributes of your users, such as their plan, language or favorite category.

• Key events: The actions you want users to take, such as finishing sign-up or buying a subscription. Google Analytics used to call these conversions.

• Audiences: Groups of users you define, such as everyone who bought something in the last 30 days.

Why use Firebase Analytics?

Firebase Analytics gives you solid event data at no cost, and it fits neatly with other Google products.

Get user-centric insights

You can see how users behave, which features they use and who they are, broken down by device, country and other attributes.

Track events

You can log custom events for the actions that matter to you, such as sign-ups, purchases and content views.

National Public Radio used Firebase Analytics to understand listening habits in its mobile app. By tracking custom events such as "episode played" and "episode completed", NPR could see how people engaged with each show. That helped the team tailor content and improve the app.

See reports in real time

The Realtime report shows what users are doing right now. That's useful for checking the effect of a release or a campaign within minutes.

Find drop-off points in user journeys

Funnel reports show the step where users leave a flow, such as sign-up or checkout. That tells you which step to look at first.

Tie user actions to marketing

Firebase works with Google Ads and other Google products, so you can connect what users do in your app to the campaigns that brought them in.

What is React Native?

React Native is Meta's open-source framework for building iOS and Android apps with JavaScript and React. Companies such as Meta, Microsoft, Shopify and Amazon use it in production, according to the React Native showcase.

How to add Firebase Analytics to a React Native app

You add Firebase Analytics with two React Native Firebase packages, a Firebase project and a rebuild. These steps follow the React Native Firebase docs for apps built with the React Native CLI. Expo apps use config plugins instead (step 6).

1. Install the app and analytics modules

In your project root, run npm install @react-native-firebase/app @react-native-firebase/analytics. With Yarn, run yarn add with the same two packages. The app module must be installed before any other Firebase module.

2. Set up the Firebase project

Open the Firebase console and create a project. Then register your iOS and Android apps. The Android package name must match the namespace in android/app/build.gradle.

Download GoogleService-Info.plist for iOS and google-services.json for Android. You'll add both files in the next step.

3. Configure Android and iOS

Android configuration

Place google-services.json in the android/app folder. Then add the Google services Gradle plugin, com.google.gms:google-services, to the buildscript dependencies in android/build.gradle. The React Native Firebase docs currently use version 4.5.0.

Finally, apply the plugin in android/app/build.gradle by adding apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services' below the Android application plugin.

iOS configuration

Add GoogleService-Info.plist to your iOS project in Xcode. Then initialize Firebase at the top of didFinishLaunchingWithOptions in your AppDelegate. In Swift, that's FirebaseApp.configure(). In Objective-C, it's [FIRApp configure], with the Firebase import at the top of the file.

Next, open ios/Podfile and add use_frameworks! with dynamic linkage inside your app target. React Native Firebase's docs warn that static linkage fails with current Firebase SDKs.

Lastly, run pod install --repo-update inside the ios folder.

4. Log events and screen views

There's nothing to initialize in JavaScript. Once the native setup is done, Analytics starts on its own and logs a set of events automatically.

For your own events, import getAnalytics and logEvent from @react-native-firebase/analytics and call logEvent with an event name and its parameters. Screen views need one more step. Automatic screen tracking only records native class names, which don't match your React screens. So call logScreenView from React Navigation's onStateChange handler, with the current route name as the screen name.

Two details save debugging time. Events from debug builds aren't logged by default, so turn on DebugView for the device you're testing on. And if users must opt in first, set analytics_auto_collection_enabled to false in firebase.json, then call setAnalyticsCollectionEnabled once they agree.

5. Rebuild your project

Rebuild both apps so the native changes take effect: npx react-native run-android for Android, and npx react-native run-ios for iOS.

Then open your app, trigger a few events and check that they arrive in the Firebase console.

6. Using Expo?

React Native Firebase doesn't run in Expo Go, because it needs native code. Install the modules with npx expo install and add their config plugins to app.json. Then point googleServicesFile to your two config files and set iOS to dynamic frameworks with expo-build-properties. Build a development build or use EAS Build to run the app.

When should you add UXCam to Firebase Analytics?

Add UXCam when you need to see what users did, as well as how many did it. Firebase Analytics can tell you that users drop out of sign-up. UXCam's session replays and heatmaps show the screen and the taps where they got stuck.

UXCam captures gestures, rage taps, UI freezes and native crashes automatically. In React Native, you add one tagScreenName() call per screen, so every interaction is tied to a named screen. Tara, UXCam's AI analyst, then points you to where users struggle without being asked.

The two tools also work together. RNUxcam.urlForCurrentSession() returns the URL of the current UXCam session. Attach it to your Firebase events as a parameter, and each event links to the replay behind it.

Should you use Firebase Analytics, UXCam or both?

Most React Native teams use both. Firebase Analytics counts events for free, and UXCam shows the sessions, heatmaps and funnels behind them. UXCam's in-depth UX analytics, session replay and heatmaps also cover your website, from the same account.

UXCam's Firebase and Google Analytics integration connects the two, so you can look at your events from both sides. Start your UXCam free trial today.

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