Authenticate with Firebase on Android Using a Custom Authentication System  |  Firebase Authentication (2024)

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You can integrate Firebase Authentication with a custom authentication system bymodifying your authentication server to produce custom signed tokens when a usersuccessfully signs in. Your app receives this token and uses it to authenticatewith Firebase.

Before you begin

1. If you haven't already, add Firebase to your Android project.
2. In your module (app-level) Gradle file(usually <project>/<app-module>/build.gradle.kts or<project>/<app-module>/build.gradle),add the dependency for the Firebase Authentication library for Android. We recommend using theFirebase Android BoMto control library versioning.

   dependencies { // Import the BoM for the Firebase platform implementation(platform("com.google.firebase:firebase-bom:32.7.0")) // Add the dependency for the Firebase Authentication library // When using the BoM, you don't specify versions in Firebase library dependencies implementation("com.google.firebase:firebase-auth")}

   By using the Firebase Android BoM, your app will always use compatible versions of Firebase Android libraries.

   (Alternative) Add Firebase library dependencies without using the BoM

   If you choose not to use the Firebase BoM, you must specify each Firebase library version in its dependency line.

   Note that if you use multiple Firebase libraries in your app, we strongly recommend using the BoM to manage library versions, which ensures that all versions are compatible.

   dependencies { // Add the dependency for the Firebase Authentication library // When NOT using the BoM, you must specify versions in Firebase library dependencies implementation("com.google.firebase:firebase-auth:22.3.0")}

   Looking for a Kotlin-specific library module? Starting inOctober 2023(Firebase BoM 32.5.0), both Kotlin and Java developers candepend on the main library module (for details, see theFAQ about this initiative).
3. Get your project's server keys:
   1. Go to the Service Accounts page in your project's settings.
   2. Click Generate New Private Key at the bottom of the Firebase Admin SDK section of the Service Accounts page.
   3. The new service account's public/private key pair is automatically saved on your computer. Copy this file to your authentication server.

Authenticate with Firebase

1. In your sign-in activity's onCreate method, get the shared instance of the FirebaseAuth object:

   Kotlin+KTX

   private lateinit var auth: FirebaseAuth// ...// Initialize Firebase Authauth = Firebase.auth
   CustomAuthActivity.kt

   Java

   private FirebaseAuth mAuth;// ...// Initialize Firebase AuthmAuth = FirebaseAuth.getInstance();
   CustomAuthActivity.java

2. When initializing your Activity, check to see if the user is currently signed in:

   Kotlin+KTX

   public override fun onStart() { super.onStart() // Check if user is signed in (non-null) and update UI accordingly. val currentUser = auth.currentUser updateUI(currentUser)}
   CustomAuthActivity.kt

   Java

   @Overridepublic void onStart() { super.onStart(); // Check if user is signed in (non-null) and update UI accordingly. FirebaseUser currentUser = mAuth.getCurrentUser(); updateUI(currentUser);}
   CustomAuthActivity.java

3. When users sign in to your app, send their sign-in credentials (for example, their username and password) to your authentication server. Your server checks the credentials and returns a custom token if they are valid.
4. After you receive the custom token from your authentication server, pass it to signInWithCustomToken to sign in the user:

   Kotlin+KTX

   customToken?.let { auth.signInWithCustomToken(it) .addOnCompleteListener(this) { task -> if (task.isSuccessful) { // Sign in success, update UI with the signed-in user's information Log.d(TAG, "signInWithCustomToken:success") val user = auth.currentUser updateUI(user) } else { // If sign in fails, display a message to the user. Log.w(TAG, "signInWithCustomToken:failure", task.exception) Toast.makeText( baseContext, "Authentication failed.", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT, ).show() updateUI(null) } }}
   CustomAuthActivity.kt

   Java

   mAuth.signInWithCustomToken(mCustomToken) .addOnCompleteListener(this, new OnCompleteListener<AuthResult>() { @Override public void onComplete(@NonNull Task<AuthResult> task) { if (task.isSuccessful()) { // Sign in success, update UI with the signed-in user's information Log.d(TAG, "signInWithCustomToken:success"); FirebaseUser user = mAuth.getCurrentUser(); updateUI(user); } else { // If sign in fails, display a message to the user. Log.w(TAG, "signInWithCustomToken:failure", task.getException()); Toast.makeText(CustomAuthActivity.this, "Authentication failed.", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); updateUI(null); } } });
   CustomAuthActivity.java

   If sign-in succeeds, the AuthStateListener you can use the getCurrentUser method to get the user's account data.

Next steps

After a user signs in for the first time, a new user account is created andlinked to the credentials—that is, the user name and password, phonenumber, or auth provider information—the user signed in with. This newaccount is stored as part of your Firebase project, and can be used to identifya user across every app in your project, regardless of how the user signs in.

• In your apps, you can get the user's basic profile information from theFirebaseUser object. See Manage Users.

• In your Firebase Realtime Database and Cloud Storage Security Rules, you can get the signed-in user's unique user ID from the auth variable, and use it to control what data a user can access.

You can allow users to sign in to your app using multiple authenticationproviders by linking auth provider credentials to anexisting user account.

To sign out a user, call signOut:

Firebase.auth.signOut()
MainActivity.kt

FirebaseAuth.getInstance().signOut();
MainActivity.java