Welcoming Fabric to Google • Hacker News Board

Re: Welcoming Fabric to Google

#11

Post by jrowley » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 6:41 PM UTC

rjvir wrote: post #4

What does this mean for Twitter Digits? Will their free SMS authentications continue? It would be a perfect fit if they phased in Twitter Digits as a Firebase authentication provider - I suspect many developers (including myself) already use these 2 services in tandem.

I wonder what it costs to operate Twitter Digits. I can't imagine they are using Twilio as an SMS gateway.

Re: Welcoming Fabric to Google

#12

Post by krat0sprakhar » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 6:44 PM UTC

huangc10 wrote: post #7

The title is a bit ambiguous. From my understanding, Google (Firebase) acquired Fabric from Twitter (not necessarily "joining"). Fabric is one of the top dev tools I use for iOS. I wonder what kind of change is in store...

Yes, you're right - it is an acquisition. Jeff Seibert clarifies in his tweet https://twitter.com/jeffseibert/status/821780349164388356

Re: Welcoming Fabric to Google

#13

Post by sapeien » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 6:45 PM UTC

I haven't heard of Fabric before. Fabric seems to have an ambiguous name and their marketing website is equally ambiguous. Something to do with mobile app analytics? I find this trend in developer tool marketing to be appalling.

Re: Welcoming Fabric to Google

#14

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 6:46 PM UTC

mxstbr wrote: post #3

I hope this isn't Twitter saving the good parts of the company before they crash and burn...

[deleted]

Re: Welcoming Fabric to Google

#15

Post by srinathrajaram » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 6:54 PM UTC

sapeien wrote: post #13

I haven't heard of Fabric before. Fabric seems to have an ambiguous name and their marketing website is equally ambiguous. Something to do with mobile app analytics? I find this trend in developer tool marketing to be appalling.

They used to be called crashlytics. Best crash reporting tool . Just works. I guess they probably are a lot more interested in ranking for stuff like crash reporting than people chancing upon their website and trying to figure out who they are.

Re: Welcoming Fabric to Google

#16

Post by pkamb » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 6:54 PM UTC

So weird to see the mostly dead http://crashlytics.com and its iOS 6-era design (linen texture!) as it's been superseded by "Fabric" and now "Firebase". Seems like such a strong brand name to kill in favor of these very generic alternatives.

Re: Welcoming Fabric to Google

#17

Post by niftich » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 6:56 PM UTC

Huh, interesting. I once responded to speculation that Google would buy Twitter by saying [1] they'd be better off neutering Twitter's ad network and data mining ambitions that were largely buoyed by Fabric and Crashlytics, and now I figure this will largely accomplish that. It also disproves my point that Twitter can sustainedly pivot into this space [2] by leaning on Fabric, Digits, and Magic Pony, and answers my more recent musing about how Fabric will fare with Twitter's recent downsizing [3].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11913828#11914620 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11937756#11942293 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12784274#12784473

Re: Welcoming Fabric to Google

#18

Post by gdulli » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 6:57 PM UTC

jrowley wrote: post #6

Silly me - I was concerned they somehow acquired the Fabic python library. http://www.fabfile.org/

Yeah, that moment of panic when you think something Google acquired is something you use.

Re: Welcoming Fabric to Google

#19

Post by Sujan » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 6:59 PM UTC

What about Fastlane?

Re: Welcoming Fabric to Google

#20

Post by s_dev » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 7:00 PM UTC

Fabric was a much better analytics tool than Google Analytics.

It's better because:

Instant crash reporting reduces release time anxiety. iTunes and Google analytics need 24 hour collection period.

Fabric can offer Fastlane and Beta -- Toolkits that help deal with distributing builds to testers and releasing apps. Google has nothing to compete with here.

Whatever way Fabric seem to define active users and sessions they seem to produce more accurate reporting while Google numbers integrated with the exact same app produce higher more ego stroking numbers.