Not using "await" on network calls

The application I work in fires analytics events on almost every button click. Although these events trigger a network call to our analytics server, we haven't been using await because

1. we don't really care if this call fails, and
2. it makes our UI a bit snappier when we avoid waiting for a network call on every button click.

Are there any pitfalls with avoiding this strategy?

You don't need to await these calls before proceeding, but you should attach a .catch() call if you care about handling errors properly. Adding a .catch() call will allow your application logic to proceed uninterrupted while still allowing you to handle the errors. If there is nothing to do on the error (no retry, no report, literally nothing) then you could just let the rejection go.

Every time you create a promise with no await and no .catch(), it's the equivalent of calling a function that throws an error with no try-catch wrapper. If that's okay with you, then it's ok.

Personally, I recommend at least adding a .catch(console.error) or even .catch(() => {}) at the very minimum. Be aware that .catch(() => {}) will silently discard any rejections, so only use that if you really really don't care about the result.

I would say it mostly depends on your expectations/goals. If the call doesn't need to be fully completed to use your application, then using await could be useless for your case. In general, await/async is needed when you have to wait for the response to be completed before continuing the execution of the application.

However, as others mentioned, you should think about your error strategy. What if one of the Firebase call fails? Do you need to revert something, inform your user, or anything else? In general, you should always have an error strategy. So, you don't have to use await/async, but you should at least use .catch() after your call to manage an error state.

There is nothing wrong with not calling await.

First of all, what is await? It's just a syntax sugar to express async operation in a synchronous way. Rule of thumb is: using await only makes sense if either of these is true:

1. You want to do something right after it's done
2. You need to assign the value returned from its Promise

Otherwise it makes zero sense to await it.

Assuming we are talking about a browser, you should check out sendBeacon() function:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/sendBeacon

This API was designed specifically for sending data to analytics and as you suggested, it doesn't wait for the network call to complete. Moreover, the user can navigate away and the data will still be sent in the background.