● Covered by 2 sources · 2 reportsMedium impact2 neutral
Shopify Reverts Mobile Development Strategy from React Native to Native Platforms
Key points
- Shopify adopted React Native in 2020 for cross-platform development.
- LLMs now enable efficient native code generation for iOS and Android.
- The company re-evaluated its mobile stack due to LLM advancements.
- Prototyping showed LLMs could implement features across platforms.
- Shopify is moving from React Native to full native development.
- The consumer app, Shop, was rebuilt in 12 weeks.
- Shopify plans to apply this approach to its merchant app.
- Shopify was still discussing React Native's future in January 2025.
- Coding agents improved significantly by late 2025.
Shopify's Mobile Strategy Evolution
Shopify announced a change in its mobile development approach, moving away from React Native, which it adopted in 2020. The initial move to React Native was successful in consolidating development efforts and enabling broader developer contributions.
The company's decision in 2020 was based on the need to avoid building features twice, allow developers to work across the stack, and reduce time spent on feature parity. React Native delivered these benefits, despite requiring investment in performance optimization and framework updates.
Impact of Large Language Models (LLMs)
A core assumption underlying Shopify's 2020 decision changed with the significant advancements in large language models (LLMs). Shopify has been utilizing LLMs for software development since 2021, initially for feature implementation, bug fixing, and code reviews.
By late 2025, LLMs had evolved to a point where they could question the premise that building software twice inherently meant double the work. This capability prompted Shopify to re-evaluate its mobile technology stack.
Re-evaluation and Prototyping
Shopify conducted prototyping to assess whether its existing technology choices remained optimal. The company rebuilt core parts of its major applications using Swift and Kotlin, leveraging LLMs in the process.
The prototyping revealed that LLM agents could implement features on Android using an iOS version as a reference, and vice versa. This capability significantly reduced the perceived cost of developing natively for each platform.
Return to Native Development
The findings from the re-evaluation and prototyping led Shopify to conclude that returning to native development for Swift and Kotlin was the appropriate path forward. The improved capabilities of LLMs have made native development more efficient, altering the cost-benefit analysis that previously favored React Native.
Updates
- Shopify is moving from React Native to full native development.
- The consumer app, Shop, was rebuilt in 12 weeks.
- Shopify plans to apply this approach to its merchant app.
- Shopify was still discussing React Native's future in January 2025.
- Coding agents improved significantly by late 2025.
✨ This summary was generated by AI from the outlets' reporting listed below. It is not independently verified and may contain errors — check the original sources. How BrevFeed works →
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How outlets covered it
Shopify is moving away from React Native for its mobile applications, opting for full native development, with AI agents handling much of the porting work. This change is driven by advancements in large language models (LLMs) that make AI agents capable of translating features between platforms. The company successfully rebuilt its consumer app, Shop, in 12 weeks using this approach, and plans to apply it to its merchant app.
Shopify is transitioning its mobile application development from React Native back to native Swift and Kotlin. This shift is driven by advancements in large language models (LLMs), which have reduced the cost and effort associated with building features separately for iOS and Android.