After a magical, wonderful Google I/O where you had a chance to learn about new features, ask questions, and give feedback, we wanted to interact with those who we didn’t get to meet at I/O. Many of us took planes to countries far from home to attend regional I/O Connect events in Berlin, Bengaluru, and Beijing (we promise the cities weren’t chosen because they all started with the same letter!), and we all had a wonderful time! Thank you for all of the good conversations and product feedback you gave, as these are really important to us and help shape the future of the product.

Across the three events, 36 Firebasers attended to give 30 talks, workshops, and demos on using Firebase with cloud, AI, web, and mobile. We announced Firebase AI Monitoring which is in private preview, the AI Testing Agent in Firebase App Distribution which is currently in early access preview, and launched the I/O Crossword built using Firebase and other Google technologies. You can read more about these below.

Aside from presenting, we held office hours to meet you and talk about everything related to Firebase, and we had a great time interacting with the Google Developer Groups (GDG) community and Google Developer Experts (GDEs) as well!

AI Monitoring

Firebase AI Monitoring is an out-of-the-box telemetry and observability tool to help you understand the quality and performance of your Genkit-built AI features! In the Firebase console, you’ll be able to see an aggregate view of the performance of your generative AI features.

Specifically, you are able to see:

• The number of tokens associated with each Genkit flow, which can inform the overall cost of your model usage
• Stability metrics for AI features, like request volume, latency, and error rate, to understand your end-user experience
• Breakdown of executed code paths and associated usage and performance metrics, which is helpful for identifying troublesome code paths in your Genkit implementation
• Traces to show individual executions of your Genkit flow, which are useful for identifying exactly where problems occurred in the execution of your Genkit flow

To get access to these features, join our private preview waitlist, and check out the video to learn more!

AI Testing Agent in App Distribution

AI Testing Agent is an app testing agent provided by Firebase App Distribution, and the AI testing agent automates repetitive manual testing work. To use the AI testing agent, you provide natural language test goals for the app you want to test, and after selecting the physical or virtual devices to run the test on, the AI testing agent executes the test in parallel across those devices. The AI testing agent analyzes each screen and decides the sequence of actions it should take to accomplish the test goal. It also adapts to your app’s changes, minimizing test flakiness and maintenance overhead.

To try it today, join the early preview waitlist as it’s early in development, and check out the video to learn more!

I/O Crossword

A twist on the classic crossword puzzle that not only tests your knowledge of all things I/O, this I/O Crossword also gives you a hands-on look at the power of Flutter, Firebase, and the Gemini API. To play, you choose a team from one of four mascots (Flutter’s Dash, Firebase’s Sparky, Android’s Bot, or Chrome’s Dino), which will determine the color your spaces turn when you solve a word. Then, choose a place on the board to get started. If you get stuck while trying to solve your word, try the “ask for a hint” button. The more words you solve in a row, the higher up on the leaderboard you (and your team) go!

To get a behind-the-scenes look at how we built the game, we launched a learning pathway along with an article specifically about using Genkit in the game. We fed Gemini Advanced keynotes from Google I/O this year and asked it to create topical, technology-related content for a crossword that would make the game a fun way to learn about I/O announcements. Gemini helped us create 320 words and clues in the game, as well as the AI-powered hint feature. Instead of needing to use Google Search for help, we built AI right into the game, just enough to keep those brain cells firing and that satisfaction flowing when you finally crack the code.

GDG / GDE Events

During the three I/O Connect events, we had the chance to meet up with GDEs at GDE Forum Berlin, GDE Meetup Bengaluru, GDE / GDG Community Dinner Beijing, and a meeting between Firebasers and Firebase GDEs in Beijing.

These were great opportunities for us to meet GDEs of different regions and for them to meet each other. As our GDEs are extremely plugged in with how their local communities use Firebase, we had a great time hearing about different regions’ use cases, wins, and challenges with Firebase. To all of our GDEs and GDG organizers around the world, thank you so much for what you do as it’s a lot of work to be so deeply involved in the community through giving talks, writing blog posts, making videos, answering questions on forums, and organizing local meetups!

See You Soon!

Despite I/O Connect being barely over, we’ve already started planning for our next developer events - this is how much we love interacting with all of you! Look out for DevFest, regionally organized by your local GDG community organizers, and you can check out all of the upcoming events around the world. We hope to see you there!