How to get the SHA-1 fingerprint certificate for debug mode in Android Studio?

A simple solution for generating the SHA-1 fingerprint for debug mode and adding it to your Firebase project.

As a constant contributor to the Firebase community on Stackoverflow, I’ve seen so many users struggling with how to generate the SHA-1 fingerprint that is required in their Firebase projects.

Before actually seeing how to generate it, first, let’s understand what exactly the SHA-1 is. According to Wikipedia:

In cryptography, SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1) is a cryptographically broken but still widely used hash function which takes an input and produces a 160-bit (20-byte) hash value known as a message digest.

When is such an SHA-1 required?

The debug signing certificate SHA-1 is required only for Dynamic Links, and Google Sign-In or phone number support in Auth. If you don’t want to use these Firebase services in your Android application, adding the certificate SHA-1 is optional.

Why is this SHA-1 necessary?

It’s because certain Google Play services (such as Google Sign-in and App Invites) require us to provide the SHA-1 of our signing…