GoKawiilGoogle fixes Firebase bug that crashed thousands of iPhone apps
A malformed payload sent to Google's Analytics for Firebase SDK caused widespread launch crashes across thousands of iOS apps starting the evening of September 28. Google engineer Nick Cooke said a fix was fully rolled out by 7:52pm Pacific that day, with lingering crashes from caching expected to clear within four hours, requiring no action from developers or users.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The incident shows how deeply third-party infrastructure like Firebase is embedded across the app ecosystem, meaning a single backend error can disrupt functionality for countless apps regardless of their own code quality. It also highlights that developers had no ability to prevent or immediately fix the issue themselves, since the fault and remedy both lay entirely with Google's servers.
- An incorrectly formatted payload in Google's Analytics for Firebase SDK caused iPhone apps to crash on launch.
- Google rolled out a full fix within about two hours, with residual crashes clearing due to caching delays.
- No developer action or SDK updates were required to resolve the issue.
Source: 9to5google.com — Ben Schoon, 2026-09-29
Published there as: “Google has fixed an issue that caused thousands of iPhone apps to crash overnight”
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