app crash on FireBase FireStore connection

I'm trying to connect to firebase, but the app just keeps crashing. I understand I must be having some misaligned dependencies, but I believe I took the right versions according to: https://firebase.google.com/support/release-notes/android

The Build.gradle.kts contain:

plugins {
    id("com.android.application") version "8.6.0"
    id("org.jetbrains.kotlin.android") version "1.9.25"
    id("com.google.gms.google-services") version "4.4.2"
}
dependencies {
    // Firebase dependencies
    implementation(platform("com.google.firebase:firebase-bom:33.3.0"))
    implementation("com.google.firebase:firebase-auth:23.0.0")
    implementation("com.google.firebase:firebase-firestore:25.1.0")
}

As for the project level:

plugins {
    alias(libs.plugins.android.application) apply false
    alias(libs.plugins.jetbrains.kotlin.android) apply false
    id("com.google.gms.google-services") version "4.4.2" apply false
}

The code I'm using is the following, as as proof of concept..:

fun checkWhitelistByEmail(
    email: String,
    onAccessGranted: () -> Unit,
    onAccessDenied: () -> Unit,
    scope: CoroutineScope // Pass the coroutine scope from outside
) {
    val db = Firebase.firestore
//    val db = FirebaseFirestore.getInstance()
    Log.d("FirestoreCheck", "Firestore instance initialized")


    db.collection("whitelisted_users")
        .get()
        .addOnSuccessListener { result ->
            for (document in result) {
                Log.d("FirestoreCheck", "${document.id} => ${document.data}")
            }
        }
        .addOnFailureListener { exception ->
            Log.w("FirestoreCheck", "Error getting documents.", exception)
        }
}

But it keeps crashing with:

FATAL EXCEPTION: main (Ask Gemini)

Process: com.flashc_ai.FlahsC_AI, PID: 5439
java.lang.RuntimeException: Internal error in Cloud Firestore (25.1.0).
    at com.google.firebase.firestore.util.AsyncQueue.lambda$panic$3(AsyncQueue.java:546)
    at com.google.firebase.firestore.util.AsyncQueue$$ExternalSyntheticLambda3.run(D8$$SyntheticClass:0)
    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:958)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
    at android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:205)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:294)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:8177)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
    at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:552)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:971)
Caused by: com.google.android.gms.tasks.RuntimeExecutionException: java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Failed resolution of: Lio/grpc/InternalGlobalInterceptors;
    at com.google.android.gms.tasks.zzw.getResult(com.google.android.gms:play-services-tasks@@18.1.0:3)
    at com.google.firebase.firestore.remote.FirestoreChannel.lambda$runBidiStreamingRpc$0$com-google-firebase-firestore-remote-FirestoreChannel(FirestoreChannel.java:146)

etc....

Any idea how I can arrange that, I'm really stuck with this bug since days and nothing works no matter what I try. Note, firebaseAuth works fine, so the connection setting is OK. Thanks!

I tried specifying the versions of the modules imported, tried to simplify the code to make a proof of concept...

thanks for the answers! In the end, I found the winning constellation, and don't dare to touch it anymore for now :D

build.gradle(app):

plugins {
    id("com.android.application") version "8.6.0"
    id("org.jetbrains.kotlin.android") version "1.9.25"
    id("com.google.gms.google-services") version "4.4.2"
}
dependencies {
    // Firebase dependencies
    implementation(platform("com.google.firebase:firebase-bom:33.3.0"))
    implementation("com.google.firebase:firebase-auth")
    implementation("com.google.firebase:firebase-firestore")
    implementation("io.grpc:grpc-okhttp:1.68.0")
    implementation("io.grpc:grpc-protobuf-lite:1.68.0")
    implementation("io.grpc:grpc-stub:1.68.0")
}

build.gradle(project):

plugins {
    alias(libs.plugins.android.application) apply false
    alias(libs.plugins.jetbrains.kotlin.android) apply false
    id("com.google.gms.google-services") version "4.4.2" apply false
}

Function:

fun checkEmail(
    doctype: String,
    onDocFound: () -> Unit,
    onDocNotFound: () -> Unit
) {
    val db = Firebase.firestore

    db.collection("my_collection")
        .document(doctype)
        .get()
        .addOnSuccessListener { document ->
            if (document != null && document.exists()) {
                // Document  exists
                onDocFound()
            } else {
                // Document doesn't exist
                onDocNotFound()
            }
        }
        .addOnFailureListener { e ->
            Log.d("FirestoreCheck", "error: $e")
            // Handle any errors
        }
}