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Share/Unify Timestamp between google_cloud_firestore and cloud_firestore #286
Description
Proposal: Share/Unify Timestamp between google_cloud_firestore and cloud_firestore
Problem
When building full-stack Dart applications (Flutter on the client, Dart VM/Firebase Functions on the server), sharing data models with Firestore timestamps is highly problematic.
cloud_firestore(specificallycloud_firestore_platform_interface) andgoogle_cloud_firestore(firebase-admin-dart) define their own incompatibleTimestampclasses.- Even though they have the same underlying structure (
secondsandnanoseconds), Dart's static type system treats them as completely separate types. - As a result, shared models cannot run simple type checks (like
value is Timestamp) without introducing Flutter dependencies to the backend. Developers must rely on brittle workarounds like string-based runtime type checking (value.runtimeType.toString().contains('Timestamp')).
Proposed Solution
We highly recommend extracting basic, pure Dart Firestore types (such as Timestamp and GeoPoint) into a lightweight, neutral package (e.g., firebase_common_types) with no dependencies on Flutter or VM-specific APIs.
Both cloud_firestore and google_cloud_firestore should then depend on and re-export these shared types. This will enable clean, type-safe full-stack Dart development.
Reacted by Syméon ROUGEVIN-BÂVILLE
Activity
demolaf commentedon Jun 4, 2026
Hi @mafreud , this does make a lot of sense. I will raise this with the team and keep this issue updated.
mafreud commentedon Jun 4, 2026
@demolaf Thank you as always!
ChreSyr commentedon Jun 24, 2026
I'm running into a similar issue with
Timestamp.My Flutter app uses
cloud_firestoreto fetch documents containingTimestampvalues. These documents are then passed to models defined in a separate package that is shared between the app and my Firebase Functions.That shared package cannot depend on
cloud_firestore, since it is also used by the dart functions package, which doesn't support flutter packages. Instead, it depends ongoogle_cloud_firestoreand therefore expectsgoogle_cloud_firestore.Timestamp.As a result, my
TimestampConverter(defined in the shared models package) cannot recognize theTimestampinstances returned bycloud_firestore, even thoughcloud_firestoredepends ongoogle_cloud_firestore.This makes me wonder: why doesn't
cloud_firestoreexpose and use theTimestamptype fromgoogle_cloud_firestoredirectly?I've run into similar, although less impactful, issues with duplicated definitions of
GeoPointandFilter.@demolaf Is the team considering addressing this in the future? Shared model packages seem like a common use case now that Dart support for Firebase Functions is available.
demolaf commentedon Jun 25, 2026
@ChreSyr Yes, this has been raised internally. I'll try to provide feedback once I have more details.