Google LLC is adding new capabilities to its Firebase mobile and web application development framework in order to make it more appealing to users from large enterprises.

Google has been steadily rolling out updates to Firebase ever since it bought the service back in 2014, with the aim being to create a full-fledged platform for building apps that can run on its Google Cloud Platform.

The latest announcements, introduced at Google’s Firebase Summit in Prague early Monday, should inspire a bit more creativity among developers thanks to the beta release of a new machine learning kit, called Face Contours. With Face Contours, the capabilities of the Face Detection application programming interface are significantly enhanced, allowing users to detect over 100 “landmarks points” on a human face. The idea is that this feature can be used to build better apps that position “accessories” such as hair, ears or glasses over a human face and make them look more realistic.

Staying with machine learning, Google also said the Firebase Predictions service is now generally available. With this service, developers can apply Google’s machine learning systems to the analytics data from their applications and gain better insights. In addition, Firebase Predictions gains support for the BigQuery service for deeper analysis of prediction data. Users can also export app data to BigQuery in order to build their own ML models, Google said.

Google also announced “Premium Cloud Support” for Firebase, providing users with access to the Google Cloud Support Center, Pantheon and eventually, phone support. Developers should appreciate the new Firebase Management API too. The idea is that users can now create and manage Firebase projects and apps programmatically, which means they can easily create or destroy environments as part of their workflow.

Finally, Google said Test Lab for iOS is also generally available. Adding to the existing Android test lab, it means developers can now test their apps built using Firebase across the full gamut of iOS and Android devices and configurations in order to tweak their performance.

Google is pushing its mobile application platform development forward with Firebase’s latest updates, said Holger Mueller, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research Inc. He said the main focus of the updates looks to be on increasing developer productivity and Firebase’s overall application lifecycle management features.

“Of course in 2018 machine learning cannot be overlooked, so it’s good to see Google adding the Face Contour feature,” Mueller said. “Also not to be underestimated is the iOS testing capability, which gives developers more time to focus on coding instead of testing.”

Image: Google