> you could just have easily have achieved the same result by just using plain Socket.io or a similar library
Is this an easier problem than I think it is? Is there a well known path for scaling socket connections and synchronizing data across clients?
I suspect most cases where devs talk about a messaging problem, it's really a data synchronization problem. I'm starting to suspect the sweet spot for Firebase in a large application is as a cache and communication mechanism rather than the primary datastore. Is that along the lines of what you're seeing?
Firebase has a few subtleties, but its API footprint is small for a datastore. How much sympathy do we need to have for people that use a tool without reading the docs first?
"free them from having to manage a backend" For a certain class of mobile apps it does. If we want the marketing material to apply to every customer, what PaaS or SaaS company will be left standing?
Is this an easier problem than I think it is? Is there a well known path for scaling socket connections and synchronizing data across clients?
I suspect most cases where devs talk about a messaging problem, it's really a data synchronization problem. I'm starting to suspect the sweet spot for Firebase in a large application is as a cache and communication mechanism rather than the primary datastore. Is that along the lines of what you're seeing?
Firebase has a few subtleties, but its API footprint is small for a datastore. How much sympathy do we need to have for people that use a tool without reading the docs first?
"free them from having to manage a backend" For a certain class of mobile apps it does. If we want the marketing material to apply to every customer, what PaaS or SaaS company will be left standing?