[🐛] [Tracking] Firebase Apple SDK ending CocoaPods support in October 2026 — RNFirebase migration path?

[ashfaqdevdksa]

Summary

Firebase has announced that the Firebase Apple SDK will stop publishing new
versions to CocoaPods in October 2026, and the public CocoaPods registry
will transition to read-only mode on December 2, 2026.

Source: official Firebase email to Apple platform developers (May 2026) and
the Firebase Apple SDK migration guide:
https://firebase.google.com/docs/ios/migrate-from-cocoapods

Since @react-native-firebase/* integrates the Firebase Apple SDK exclusively
via CocoaPods today, this directly impacts every React Native app using this
library on iOS. I could not find an existing tracking issue for this, so
opening one to centralize discussion.

Why this matters for RNFirebase users

After October 2026, RN apps that continue installing Firebase via CocoaPods
will:

• Stop receiving new Firebase features
• Stop receiving Firebase performance improvements
• Stop receiving critical bug fixes and security patches

After December 2, 2026, the CocoaPods registry itself becomes read-only, so
even reproducing today's pod install from a clean machine becomes fragile
long-term.

Questions for maintainers

1. Is there an official position / roadmap for migrating RNFirebase off
   CocoaPods before October 2026?
2. Swift Package Manager support — is SPM the intended path? React Native
   added experimental SPM support in 0.78 and it is maturing in 0.81+. Are
   there plans (or in-progress work) to publish RNFirebase modules as SPM
   packages, or to support consuming the Firebase Apple SDK via SPM while
   RNFirebase itself stays a CocoaPod?
3. Manual / xcframework fallback — if SPM is not ready in time, will the
   library support / document a path where consumers vendor Firebase
   .xcframework binaries (from the Firebase zip distribution) and point
   RNFirebase podspecs at them? Anything we as users should not do here to
   stay on the supported path?
4. Timeline expectations — at what point do you expect users to need to
   take action? Should we plan migration work for Q3 2026, or earlier?
5. Deprecation warnings — Firebase says CocoaPods deprecation warnings
   will start appearing in pod install output around May 2026. Will
   RNFirebase suppress/forward those, or should we expect them in CI logs
   in the meantime?

Environment (for context)

• @react-native-firebase/app: ^21.7.0
• @react-native-firebase/analytics: ^21.7.0
• @react-native-firebase/perf: ^21.7.1
• React Native: <fill in your RN version, e.g. 0.74.x>
• iOS deployment target: <fill in, e.g. 15.1>
• CocoaPods: <fill in, e.g. 1.15.x>
• Using $RNFirebaseAsStaticFramework = true: yes
• Firebase iOS SDK currently resolved: 11.11.0

What we are doing in the meantime

Tracking this issue and Firebase iOS SDK release notes. Happy to help test
SPM / xcframework migration paths on a real production app once a candidate
approach exists.

Thanks for maintaining this library.

[russellwheatley]

Hey @ashfaqdevdksa - we want to reassure everyone that we are aware of the pending deadline.

There is already a pull request in the works: #8933

The idea is to continue using podspecs in RNF packages, with transitive dependencies on Firebase SDK's Swift packages. We're aiming to have this completed by Q2.

RNF will not suppress console warnings from cocoapods.

We'll keep this issue open to communicate any further changes or developments on this migration.