Take three minutes to write an app idea on a napkin and then build it?
That is exactly what the #napkinChallenge is and thanks to @rodydavis and @lukeschlangen I was asked to do exactly that. I take my napkin, upload it to AI Studio and let #Gemini go at it.
I don't hold back any mistakes that were made along the way so come watch as Gemini fixes some of the errors it made while I sit back and enjoy a coffee as Gemini works.
As part of this challenge series, I want to see what the following folks can build with their napkin sketch:
@kroikie , @thatfiredev , @jhuleatt#AppDev#AI#appDeveloper#developer#vibeCoding#Firebase
Ever shipped an app that worked perfectly under the hood but looked like it was built in 2003?
Watch to learn about Stitch, Google Labs’ AI-powered UI generation tool that helps you build stunning interfaces without writing a single line of initial CSS → goo.gle/4tA19z5
Vibe coders, meet vibe design!
I had the opportunity to host David East from Google Labs, who introduced me to Stitch, a free tool from Google designed to help transform your ideas into a beautiful format.
youtu.be/hNHE301qF1A?si=Q7aG…
Join us on Firebase After Hours - we'll talk about Firebase in AI Studio!
Our guests today: Luke Schlangen and Melissa Lopez-Tessler!
youtube.com/watch?v=mV-gW83c…
Everyone is trying to build agents to do their work.
I recently tried it myself!
I used the Developer Knowledge and Reddit MCP servers to build Dev Signal - a multi-agent system for technical content creation on trending topics.
Link to blog in comments.
Great video from @lukeschlangen explaining how skills files help your LLM agents complete tasks faster and cheaper.
It's explained in the context of Firebase, but the first two-thirds are a useful introduction for everyone interested in the topic.
youtube.com/watch?v=8V_I4jsX…
nohe.dev/posts/2026/03/fix-b…
The late-night Sunday deployment where a tiny oversight turns into a high-pressure scramble. 😅
Recently, I was tasked with pushing a critical post to the Firebase Blog. The push went smoothly, but there was one massive problem
I added a redirects array to our hosting property:
Source: The accidental placeholder URL.
Destination: The correct partner URL.
Type: 301 (Permanent Redirect).
By using a 301, any user's browser hitting the old link immediately (and permanently) routes to the correct one.
Developers, let's be honest: SMS OTP for sign-in is awful.
It's slow, users drop off, it's vulnerable to phishing, and AIT (traffic pumping) costs are a nightmare. 😩
What if you could skip SMS entirely?
This is a differentiator for onboarding. The SDK is smart, too—it lets you check for carrier compatibility first. If the carrier isn't supported, you can fall back to your existing SMS flow.
It's a perfect progressive enhancement.
The Phone Number Verification dev preview is launching with @deutschetelekom (Germany) and @Telkomsel (Indonesia), with more carriers coming.
Check out the blog & fill out the interest form in the blog: firebase.blog/posts/2025/10/…