I want to create a firebase function that would delete or update a document after 24 hours like Instagram stories. Would this implementation work?
// 24 hours in miliseconds
const time = 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000;
exports.updateUser = functions.firestore
.document('users/{id}')
.onUpdate((change, context) => {
setTimeout(() => {
// Delete or update doc
}, time);
});
If you are asking if you can use setTimeout to implement a one-hour delay in Cloud Functions, the answer is no, it will not work. Cloud Functions can run for at most 9 minutes (60s default). After that, the function will shut down, and your timeout callback will be canceled.
If you want to schedule some work for a specific future time, you should use Cloud Tasks instead. Either that, or use a scheduled function to periodically scan for documents to delete.
See also:
