What is the _apply plugin: "com.google.gms.google-services'_"?

Question

What exactly does it add apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'? If I comment on this, my application will still compile and run. Read more about adding Firebase to a project here .

Answer 1

It reads resources from your google-services.json file as described here . It also adds a compiled dependency on firebase-coreif it is not already present. This dependency will cause FirebaseInitProvider to merge into your manifest, which is responsible for initializing FirebaseApp by default when starting the application with resources that it read during the build phase.

If you want to know more about the init Firebase application, read:

• How is Firebase initialized on Android?
• Take control of your Firebase Init on Android