I'm happy that Crashlytics will live on, as that was something I was concerned about in light of Twitter's recent poor performance.
However, I'm really not looking forward to the eventual Firebase-ifying/Google-ifying of the UI/design. The Firebase/Google Console interfaces are terrible. Just awful. I cringe thinking about what could happen to the Crashlytics UI.
Your texts and instructions are byzantine. For example, what is the following supposed to say:
"By default, your Firebase Analytics data will enhance other Firebase features and Google products. You can control how your Firebase Analytics data is shared in your Firebase settings at any time.
Link your AdMob app(s) to Firebase and we'll share your data from the free Firebase Analytics tool with AdMob to improve app monetization and user engagement. You understand that this linkage may also allow AdMob Data to be shared with Firebase for enhanced reporting purposes."
I guess it means something like "Link you Admob account to Firebase" but it sounds kind of scary.
1) Lack of in depth analytics on storage and the database. You give us some vague bandwidth and space metrics which aren't that useful.
2) No way to search, filter, or query the database. The database manager is really only a JSON editor which isn't that useful. I'm guessing this is a consequence of the database API being very limited.
3) Editing rules using a JSON or even Bolt becomes unmaintainable once you reach a certain complexity. Specially if you want to create role based permissions. There should be a UI to manage rules. Even better, there should be a role based permissions system built in.
In some ways I agree with you about Google-ifying of the UI design and that confusion. (e.g. there's been a "Google Developers Console" and also a separate "Google Play Developers Console" and I found the relationship between those confusing at times.)
OTOH, once I started using Firebase console, I felt that Google was taking a step in the right direction. That is, my general impression has been that Firebase's console is easier for me to make sense of and there is less needless complexity/confusion.
One example for me was my general impression with setting up Google Cloud Messaging with the old Google Developer Console (a couple of years ago) and more recently setting up Firebase messaging in the Firebase console. It just seemed easier and smoother to set up Firebase messages. There seemed to be less gotchas and dead ends, for what that's worth.
However, I'm really not looking forward to the eventual Firebase-ifying/Google-ifying of the UI/design. The Firebase/Google Console interfaces are terrible. Just awful. I cringe thinking about what could happen to the Crashlytics UI.