Firebase Studio - Google’s answer to Lovable, Bolt, and Windsurf

we are building an app from scratch (no code) incl. link Stripe for payments.

Author

Martin Musiol
April 27, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

AI enthusiasts,

I received some requests pinging me about Google's Firebase Studio. It's in that same vein as Lovable, Bolt.new, Windsurf, Replit Agent – the whole prompt-to-app generation scene.

Give it instructions, get a web app back, and skip the boilerplate coding.

In the first of two episodes, we build the app from scratch. In the second, we receive our first Stripe payment.

In May, I will give an AI Agent BOOTCAMP (remote)

- at ODSC East 2025.

Image 1: ODSC East 2025 Speaker Card for Martin Musiol A professionally designed conference speaker card for ODSC East 2025, highlighting Martin Musiol as a featured speaker. The design features a clean, tech-forward aesthetic with a deep blue and purple gradient background and digital elements resembling binary code. In the upper left, there's a circular, high-resolution headshot of Martin Musiol. He has short brown hair, a beard, and wears black-rimmed glasses and a light blue shirt. Surrounding the portrait are colorful circular nodes, suggesting network or tech symbolism. To the right of the image, his credentials are listed: “Martin Musiol Co-Founder and Instructor | Principal Data Science Manager Generative AI.net | Infosys Consulting.” Above this, in small caps, is the category “BOOTCAMP” and a subheading in orange: “AI AGENTS.” Centered below the headshot and bio is the title of his talk: “The Age of AI Agents and Product Development” At the bottom, the conference name and details are shown: “ODSC EAST 2025 — The Leading AI Builders Conference May 13-15, Boston”

💁 As a member of my network, you can use the code (MartinMuisol) to receive a discount for your registration. Secure your pass through any main pages registration links: https://odsc.com/boston/

Looking forward to connecting with you there!

Firebase Studio - Google’s answer to Lovable, Bolt, and Windsurf

A dark-themed Firebase promotional page. Header text reads, “Make your app 🔗⚡ the best it can be with Firebase and generative AI.” Below, supporting text explains Firebase helps prototype, build, and run AI-powered apps users love. It emphasizes Firebase’s support across the app lifecycle, backing by Google, and widespread business trust. At the bottom, two call-to-action buttons: “Get started in console” (highlighted in orange) and “Try Firebase Studio” (plain text with an arrow).

You know I track these tools closely. I’ve been calling out the good (and sometimes the not-so-good) for 56 weeks straight here.

So, let's dive into Firebase Studio and build. Today’s example: "WikiSpeedQuiz" – a quiz app using Wikipedia content, AI-generated questions, and a payment gate.

Here’s the workflow:

(Requirement: You need a Google Account. It wires directly into Firebase, Gemini, the whole Google ecosystem, which is huuuge!)

  1. Start with the Prompt: Nail down your app idea and feed it to the AI. For our "WikiSpeedQuiz," you'd specify the core functions: Wikipedia lookup, AI questions, timer, and payment. Clarity is key here.

  2. AI Scaffolds the App: Firebase Studio takes your prompt and generates the initial application structure and basic UI. Watch it put together the first draft.

    The Firebase Studio project view for “WikiSpeedQuiz.” The main app page is visible on the left, displaying “Welcome to WikiSpeedQuiz” and a button labeled “Pay $0.50 to Start,” requiring payment per quiz attempt. On the right, a sidebar outlines app blueprint features: Passage Display, AI Quiz Generation, Quiz Interaction, and Payment Integration. Each feature is briefly described, focusing on AI-based quiz generation, Stripe payment setup, and single-page user experience.

  3. Inspect the First Draft: Time to actually use the preview. Click through the flow. Start the quiz, check the passage display, answer questions. Does it even run? The demo showed a "Hydration failed" error right off the bat (classic frontend fun) and a broken timer. It’s expecte to find issues. We keep it cool. AI helps us solve them anyways.

  4. Iterate via Chat – The Core Loop: You don't dive into code; you talk to the AI. Type commands directly into the chat interface: "Fix the hydration error." "Implement the timer correctly." "Change the free trial count to zero." The AI refines the codebase and updates the preview. This back-and-forth is crucial. You can even draw in Firebase Studio:

    A bug report or UI feedback window. It shows a user-submitted comment: “After submitting my name, which by the way is not in a real contrast, and I click on submit score, the leaderboard does not show.” Below is a small preview of the quiz app screen with a circle highlighting the “Submit Score” and “Leaderboard” buttons. At the bottom, a “File changes” section indicating an update in the code file src/app/page.tsx with a checkmark confirming the current version.

  5. Seamless Google Integrations (Gemini API):
    Need external services? Firebase Studio handles Google's own stuff smoothly. For the AI questions, it needs a Gemini API key. The tool auto-detects this dependency and prompts you to provide or auto-generate the key. Pretty streamlined.

  6. Deploy to Firebase: Happy with the result? Hit "Publish." Select or create your target Firebase project, hook up a Cloud Billing account (because infra costs money), confirm the pricing model, and deploy. You get a live URL for your app. (Can be easily hooked into any domain.)

    A popup screen titled “Publish your app.” It explains that Firebase App Hosting is used to host the app. Steps are listed: (1) Firebase project selected (“wikispeedquiz”), (2) Cloud Billing account linking needed, showing a newly created billing account. A warning explains that upgrading links the project to pay-as-you-go pricing for Firebase, Cloud, and Gemini services. At the bottom is a “Next” button to proceed.

☝️ My Take:

Firebase Studio is clearly leveraging Google's ecosystem (Firebase hosting, Gemini AI) as its edge in the AI app-builder space.

The concept is powerful: prompt, review, refine via chat, deploy.

The real differentiator will be Google’s ecosystem. Google has a cloud, a bunch of cutting-edge AI, databases, OS mobile, browsers, wearables, and much more.

The question of whether it can reliably handle complex requests and bug fixes beyond simple UI tweaks doesn’t need to be asked. It’ll be solved within the next year.

It's one to watch, especially for rapidly prototyping ideas integrated with Google services. The potential is there.

Here you can watch me building with Firebase Studio:

❝

The best way to validate an idea is to launch it and see if people pay.

Pieter Levels, Entrepreneur & Builder

Episode 2 - Learn how to modify (easily, no code)

Next week’s premium-only episode shows how to extend the app and add Stripe, letting users pay via a shared link—the strongest proof of value. This is among other valuable info.

Upgrade to Premium now and get the episode Monday or Tuesday.

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