Get started with Firebase In-App Messaging

This quickstart shows you how to set up Firebase In-App Messaging and send your first message.


Before you begin

Before starting, make sure to add Firebase to your Apple project.

Add the Firebase In-App Messaging SDK to your project

Use Swift Package Manager to install and manage Firebase dependencies.

  1. In Xcode, with your app project open, navigate to File > Add Packages.
  2. When prompted, add the Firebase Apple platforms SDK repository:
    3.   https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk.git
  3. Choose the In-App Messaging library.
  4. Add the -ObjC flag to the Other Linker Flags section of your target's build settings.
  5. To use In-App Messaging, you must enable Google Analytics in your Firebase project and add the Firebase SDK for Google Analytics to your app. You can select either the library without IDFA collection or with IDFA collection.
  6. When finished, Xcode will automatically begin resolving and downloading your dependencies in the background.

Now, initialize the SDK in your app:

  1. Import the Firebase module in your App struct or UIApplicationDelegate, if you haven't yet:
    Swift
    import Firebase
    Objective-C
    @import Firebase;
  2. Also configure a FirebaseApp shared instance, typically in your App's initializer or your app delegate's application(_:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) method, if you haven't yet:
    Swift
    FirebaseApp.configure()
    Objective-C
    [FIRApp configure];
  3. Compile and run your app.

Send a test message

Get your app's installation ID

To conserve power, Firebase In-App Messaging only retrieves messages from the server once per day. That can make testing difficult, so the Firebase console allows you to specify a test device that displays messages on demand.

That testing device is determined by a Firebase installation ID provided by the Firebase installations service. To find your testing app's installation ID, run the app with the runtime command argument -FIRDebugEnabled:

  1. With your Xcode project open, select Product > Scheme > Edit scheme... from the top menu bar.
  2. Open the Arguments tab of the dialog that pops up.
  3. Click + Add items under Arguments Passed On Launch.
  4. Enter "-FIRDebugEnabled" in the newly-created field.
  5. Click Close, then run your app.

Once your app starts running, look for the following line in the Xcode console's logs:

[Firebase/InAppMessaging][I-IAM180017] Starting InAppMessaging runtime with Firebase Installation ID YOUR_INSTALLATION_ID

Send a message to your testing device

Once you've launched your app on the testing device and you have its Firebase installation ID (FID), you can try out your Firebase In-App Messaging setup by sending a test message:

  1. In the Firebase console, open the Messaging page.
  2. If this is your first campaign, click Create your first campaign.
    1. Select Firebase In-App messages and click Create.
  3. Otherwise, on the Campaigns tab, click New campaign.
    1. Select In-App Messaging.
  4. Enter a Title for your first message.
  5. Click Test on Device
  6. Enter your app's Firebase installation ID in the Add an installation ID field.
  7. Click Test to send the message.

Firebase In-App Messaging sends your test message as soon as you click Test. To see the message, you need to close, then reopen the app on your testing device.

To confirm whether your device is a test device, look for the following log message:

[Firebase/InAppMessaging][I-IAM180017] Seeing test message in fetch response. Turn the current instance into a testing instance.