Shopify begins massive rewrite to leave React Native

Shopify is abandoning React Native six years after going "all-in" on the Meta-developed framework, rewriting its mobile apps in Swift and Kotlin using a new AI-powered system. Director of Engineering and Head of Mobile Mustafa Ali said the Shop app was fully rebuilt and launched as a native app in 12 weeks, and that LLM and agent coding capabilities "can now do enough of the implementation, translation, testing, and review work that it's no longer the deciding factor it was in 2020.

Six years after deciding to go “all-in” with React Native, Shopify is ditching the framework and rewriting its software to go back to native, with the help of AI. The e-commerce company said it had built a new AI-powered system https://shopify.engineering/back-to-native?ref=thestack.technology to rewrite all its mobile apps in Swift and Kotlin, with its Shop app already fully rebuilt https://shopify.engineering/shop-app-migration?ref=thestack.technology and launched as a native app in just 12 weeks. Director of Engineering and Head of Mobile Mustafa Ali said that the growing coding capabilities of LLMs and agents had lessened the cost of maintaining different software for different platforms and made it easier to write in native code. In a blog post, he wrote: “Agents can now do enough of the implementation, translation, testing, and review work that it’s no longer the deciding factor it was in 2020.” React Native https://reactnative.dev/?ref=thestack.technology is a JavaScript-based open source framework developed by Meta in the early 2010s and shared as an easier way to build mobile apps https://www.fullestop.com/blog/react-native-vs-native-development-which-to-choose?ref=thestack.technology that work across different operating systems, but development with it also includes compromises, particularly around efficiency.