[MUSIC PLAYING]
[WHISTLE BLOWING]
MIKE BONNELL: Off sides.
That means we have to switch seats.
You know what this is?
DOUG STEVENSON: A red card?
MIKE BONNELL: No shoes on the field.
DOUG STEVENSON: What is this?
MIKE BONNELL: That's OK.
I have another one.
DOUG STEVENSON: Hey, everybody.
Welcome to #MeetFirebase, where you
get to meet the Googlers that make Firebase happen.
On the show with me today is Mike Bonnell.
Mike.
[CHEERING]
MIKE BONNELL: Doug, good to see you.
DOUG STEVENSON: Thanks for being on the show.
So tell me, Mike, what do you do with the Firebase team?
MIKE BONNELL: So I'm a developer advocate on Firebase.
And I focus on supporting developers
using Firebase and Fabric.
DOUG STEVENSON: OK.
So tell me, for those of you who don't know at home,
tell us what Fabric is.
MIKE BONNELL: Yeah.
So Fabric is a suite of mobile SDKs
that is focused on helping developers build, understand,
and grow their app.
DOUG STEVENSON: OK.
That sounds very similar to Firebase, actually.
MIKE BONNELL: It is very similar.
Build, improve quality, and grow.
And so when we came to Firebase a little more than a year ago,
it was a very natural fit.
So it's been great to come on.
DOUG STEVENSON: OK.
And that's part of what you've been doing.
So I know that we've been slowly bringing parts of Fabric
into Firebase, and you've been sort of instrumental in helping
that happen.
So tell me, how's that going so far?
MIKE BONNELL: It's been a team effort, for sure.
Firebase Crashlytics was the first product
that we've really brought over and launched.
Digits was one of our older--
another SDK that we had that was replaced with Firebase Auth.
DOUG STEVENSON: Well, it became part of Firebase Auth.
Right?
Because I think--
MIKE BONNELL: There was-- yeah.
DOUG STEVENSON: Auth had, it was like, Twitter and Google Plus,
and then, a bunch of other providers,
and phone authentication became part of that as well.
MIKE BONNELL: Yes, yes.
Great point.
Yeah.
DOUG STEVENSON: OK.
And so what sort of support channels do you normally use?
MIKE BONNELL: Yeah.
That's a great question.
So we have a bunch of different channels.
There's the Firebase support console,
where people can always go for for help on Firebase.
But then, we also monitor Twitter, Stack Overflow, email
support for Fabric, Slack.
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah, I seen you on--
MIKE BONNELL: All sorts of places.
Yeah, yeah, so you'll see my face
in a bunch of different places, and the rest of my team
as well.
DOUG STEVENSON: OK.
Well, it sounds like you're very developer-focused.
And I know Firebase, we tend to be very developer-focused
as well.
So it sounds like we're kind of doing some of the same stuff
here.
Right?
We're kind of playing on the same team, in a sense, right?
MIKE BONNELL: Well, yeah.
I think that's one of the great things,
is we now are playing on the same team,
and we can kind of focus on our efforts
on making just Firebase better for everyone.
DOUG STEVENSON: So how's that been, getting Crashlytics--
so Crashlytics had its own dashboard, its own console,
and then it started to get moved into the Firebase console.
And right now, my understanding is
that you can access your data in both places.
So you can access the original Crashlytics dashboard,
but you can also see things in Firebase.
How's that transition going?
MIKE BONNELL: Yeah, it's a great question.
So Crashlytics is part of the Fabric dashboard, which
also has analytics and a few other things,
such as beta and other products.
But you now can either do Crashlytics through Fabric,
if that's what you had been using,
and that continues to work just fine.
But we now offer Firebase Crashlytics.
So if you are a Firebase customer,
you've been using Crashlytics from Fabric,
you can have Crashlytics data in your Firebase console.
Kind of have one home to go to.
You don't need to be going to two places.
DOUG STEVENSON: Mm.
Yeah.
MIKE BONNELL: But I think you'll continue
to see us kind of merge existing Fabric functionality
into Firebase to make Firebase kind of the new home.
DOUG STEVENSON: OK.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
I think that having everything in one space
is very helpful for developers, rather than having to like,
jump back and forth between consoles.
MIKE BONNELL: Exactly.
And that's one of the things we want to stop.
You know, come to Firebase, it's going to be your new home.
It's going to be working new to make it better and better.
So feedback, always welcome.
Feel free to send over feedback.
DOUG STEVENSON: Yes, we do very much value your feedback.
So.
You're a new father, right?
MIKE BONNELL: So I have a 3 and 1/2 year old.
So relatively new, so to speak.
But they're always learning and developing in different ways,
so it's always, you have to stay on top of it.
And soon as you think you have it figured out,
something else comes along and changes it all.
DOUG STEVENSON: The kids keep changing, right?
They keep growing up.
Why do they do that?
MIKE BONNELL: I don't know.
If they could just stay at one or two years,
it'd be really easy.
But now, he's running and jumping, and very demanding.
That's the current thing we're dealing with.
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah, yeah.
MIKE BONNELL: He does not like to hear no, which, I mean,
is true for most people.
DOUG STEVENSON: Well, the kids like
to say no and complain, right?
They learned that they can reject.
MIKE BONNELL: Yes, that's actually--
like, his favorite word is no at this point.
Or he says, Papa, you can't say no.
So if he wants ice cream for breakfast, right, something
he likes quite often, I say no.
And he's like, Papa, you can't say that.
[LAUGHTER]
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah, setting a good rule there.
[LAUGHTER]
Why not?
Just say, now, I can say that, but you can't say that.
Because that's how the 3 and 1/2 year old mind works, right?
MIKE BONNELL: Apparently.
So I've learned.
DOUG STEVENSON: So, you must be pretty busy with children.
I imagine family life is kind of demanding.
What do you do in your spare time?
That little spare time, I imagine, that you have.
MIKE BONNELL: Yeah, the little spare time that I have.
It's all a bunch of different things.
I like board games and video games.
So playing those.
I also like to can, preserve food.
My wife and I do that at home.
And I'm also a soccer referee.
DOUG STEVENSON: Wow.
That's a lot of stuff.
So a lot of our guests that come on love games, video games.
I'm a retro gamer.
You like board games.
MIKE BONNELL: Yeah.
DOUG STEVENSON: One of our last guests, JOhn Burge,
was a huge board gamer.
And he built this sort like, container
for holding all of his games when he was traveling.
He seemed very organized.
Is that you?
Are you--
MIKE BONNELL: No.
DOUG STEVENSON: OK.
MIKE BONNELL: No.
I am not that organized.
Right now, our board games are just kind of
in a random part of our house, kind
of all stacked on top of each other,
and it's a complete disaster.
DOUG STEVENSON: So how do you play them.
Are they playable?
MIKE BONNELL: They are playable, but with a 3 and 1/2 year old,
it's a little bit harder.
You have to spend time, an hour or two hours, playing games.
DOUG STEVENSON: Pieces and bits and parts get lost.
MIKE BONNELL: Yes.
Yes, my 3-year-old likes to put different pieces of games
together.
And it's fun to untangle those.
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah, I bet.
MIKE BONNELL: By fun, I mean absolutely horrible.
[LAUGHTER]
DOUG STEVENSON: I see.
See, it seemed like John had his sort of everything
in its proper containered spot and very organized.
And I guess maybe it just depends on where you come from.
MIKE BONNELL: I have dreams of that one day.
But I don't see it happening for another couple of years.
DOUG STEVENSON: That's, you know, that's certainly
understandable.
So being a soccer ref, how did you get into that?
How does one become a soccer ref?
MIKE BONNELL: Yeah, so that's a great question.
It's actually interesting, because it takes me back
to my childhood.
And I used to be really into baseball.
And my dad was an umpire.
He was the chief umpire of the Little League I was at.
I asked my dad to teach me how to become a baseball umpire,
and so I did that for about six years.
And then in college, I really got into soccer.
So after I graduated from college, I was like, hey,
it's been a while since I've done umpiring.
Let's try refereeing.
And so you take a class.
It's a two-day class to get certified originally.
And then once you get certified, you just
go out and start reffing.
You start with lower level games,
and you kind of work your way up as you build experience.
DOUG STEVENSON: So the very first time
I ever reffed a hockey game, we were short a ref.
And they were like, you want to do it?
I'm like, OK, I've never done this before.
And I want to say it was a disaster.
[LAUGHTER]
MIKE BONNELL: First game usually is for everybody.
DOUG STEVENSON: Yeah, it was pretty bad.
I think I let too many like, penalties,
like, let them slide.
And so, when that happens, players like, oh, you know,
they feel like they have more ability to get away with more,
because when they get away with stuff that becomes more
likely without being called.
And I felt terrible about that.
Well, we've got to take a break here.
Be sure to join us right here in the Firebase channel on YouTube
tomorrow, because we've got a lot more questions for Mike.
So, I'll see you here next time.
[APPLAUSE]
MIKE BONNELL: Red card, Doug.
Illegal question.
You can't ask me that.
DOUG STEVENSON: Oh, no.
No, no, no.
This is my show.
You can't be telling me what I can and can't ask.
MIKE BONNELL: There are rules and laws.
And you got a red card.
DOUG STEVENSON: No, this is the Firebasement.
I reign supreme here.
You can't tell me anything.
You put that card.
You take that home.
MIKE BONNELL: You're getting another one.
You're going to get a suspension.
DOUG STEVENSON: I'm kicking you out.