I am planning to build an android chat application and confused choosing either realtime database or firestore. The chat application will also support sending attachment (pictures and videos). So according to me realtime database would be better. Please correct me if I am wrong.

CodePudding user response：

Firebase Realtime Database and Firestore are both real-time databases from Firebase, and both can be used for a chat application. While Realtime Database has been around for longer, Firestore provides several advantages over Realtime Database, such as more advanced querying, better scalability, and better support for offline usage.

Both Realtime Database and Firestore support sending attachments (pictures and videos) by storing the attachment data as binary data within the database. If your chat application is expected to handle large amounts of data, Firestore may be a better choice as it is more scalable than Realtime Database.

In conclusion, either Realtime Database or Firestore could work for your chat application, but Firestore may offer some advantages in terms of scalability and querying capabilities.

Firebase offers a questionariy where you can find out what you should pick based on your needs.

Check it out here: https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/rtdb-vs-firestore