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Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

shopify.engineering

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Re: Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

#811

Post by tonyedgecombe »

keithcarolus wrote: post #637

That Shopify employs 3,000 engineers is astounding. I was rejected after a fairly basic ML interview at Shopify and when I asked for feedback I was told someday I could become a machine learning engineer. I don’t think the interviewer read my resume or understood my responses as this was after working for several years in ML roles - staff applied ML and scientist. So maybe that tells you something.

>I asked for feedback

Even if they gave you feedback I think you would have to take it with a pinch of salt.

Hiring decisions are more emotional than most people would admit.

Re: Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

#813

Post by hackisterium »

stingraycharles wrote: post #736
harrouet wrote: post #723

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus they have an Amazon-scale infrastructure to manage...

I think Amazon is very much on another level in terms of scale. Not trying to be negative about Shopify — they have a very large system to maintain - but Amazon is just on another level.

Combined Shopify sales are ~half of Amazon's but growing quicker. Shopify probably supports more sales per engineer than Amazon's retail stack team.

Re: Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

#814

Post by myko »

kajman wrote: post #306
atonse wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote every single line of the react native app we ported, and maintained it for 9 years. So suffice to say, I'm familiar with the code. But I am going to always prioritize the user experience over a developer (like myself)'s need for satisfaction to see code. And a pure native app is _always_ going to behave better than react native. This gives me a chance to do that.

> And a pure native app is _always_ going to behave better than react native. Maybe iOS is better about consistency, but I've used enough horribly made Android apps that I would not expect one that's vibe coded to behave better than a professionally made react native version.

I would if it were based on the RN version. RN is kind of okay on iOS, but really shitty on Android. Would be difficult to be _worse_.

That said, I do recommend reading the code the LLM produces whether you understand the language or not. What better time to learn?

Re: Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

#815

Post by myko »

avicado0o wrote: post #751
ashishb wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

React native is broadly an inferior option. LLMs made it way worse https://ashishb.net/tech/react-native/

this is from 2021....

and still accurate in its conclusion, probably moreso today

Re: Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

#816

Post by hackisterium »

tomnipotent wrote: post #805
stingraycharles wrote: post #736

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Amazon is very much on another level in terms of scale. Not trying to be negative about Shopify — they have a very large system to maintain - but Amazon is just on another level.

Shopify is not far behind Amazon (the e-com business). It's network sees as many unique visitors as Amazon, though I imagine Amazon has more sessions per visitor, but the GMV across Shopify is just shy of half of Amazon. It's still in the same ball park.

What metic are you using? Shopify takes an average of ~$1bn at checkout daily while Amazon is over 2bn.

Re: Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

#817

Post by myko »

user43928 wrote: post #496
hectdev wrote: post #482

As an iOS Engineer that has been fighting the battle against every C-level type who brings up the subject of a shared codebase my whole career, I feel very validated.

They specifically say in the post how React Native was the correct decision and that it worked well for them. Now it's a different situation as implementation has become incredibly cheap.

Yeah they do say that but as someone who has worked on native apps / RN for most of my career I think that is bullshit. They're not going to come out with a mea culpa owning that, this is as close as it gets.

Re: Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

#818

Post by josefrichter »

msalihb wrote: post #792

React Native and Flutter as cross platform frameworks are best for Startups which can't handle 2 mobile developers. They can create MVPs in short time then start to looking for investors. After the app mature enough company should decide to move native.

Even at MVP startups that's not true anymore. It's now easier to build native than to deal with RN quirks.

Re: Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

#819

Post by echoangle »

hackisterium wrote: post #813
stingraycharles wrote: post #736

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Amazon is very much on another level in terms of scale. Not trying to be negative about Shopify — they have a very large system to maintain - but Amazon is just on another level.

Combined Shopify sales are ~half of Amazon's but growing quicker. Shopify probably supports more sales per engineer than Amazon's retail stack team.

Amazon also has AWS as infra though, they only do retail as a side gig

Re: Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

#820

Post by svennidal »

meowface wrote: post #761
sashank_1509 wrote: post #599

Numbers from GPT Astra - Shopify has 3000 engineers as of 2026 - Google Chrome when released in 2008 conservatively had ~ 60 engineers. - GTA 5 in its credits had 150 software engineers. Surprising even to me who has had many an experience of being in a bloated FAANG team, this 150 includes GTA Online! In a sane society, Shopify’s opinion on anything engineering related would be thrown into rubbish because they seem…

Tidal is pretty nice to use. Plus the music isn't compressed.

I love Tidal. That said its UI is remarkably heavy for what it is. You also used to see what quality the songs were in without playing them, but they removed that. They added bpm and key, but that is not as useful to most of us as seeing the quality of the song beforehand.

And you also have to make sure you're getting the most out of it manually. Here are three steps for those who have Tidal and wan't to make sure that they're getting the most (ish) for their money:

1. Hardware Source: If you're using the soundcard in your computer, make sure to bump up the sample rate: on macOS you go to "Audio MIDI Setup" and change the sample rate to highest possible for your output.

2. Software Source: In Tidal itself you have to go to "Settings" and under "Audio quality" choose "Max". Under "Playback" turn off "Normalize volume". If you're having a dinner party and playing the music through a bluetooth speaker, you might want to leave it on. But otherwise off; the normalization causes distortion.

3. Output Device: You have two options here and you can go with both or invest more in the other one:

  * Option 1: Invest in some decent studio monitors. They don't have to be expensive or be able to play super loud, they just have to not lie to you. I would 100% recommend buying higher quality low power monitors for small spaces and/or spaces that lack acoustic treatment.  

  * Option 2: Buy some actually ok headphones. Bluetooth headphones are not good. I got Sony WH-1000XM6 which I mostly use outside. Inside I can plug them with an audio cable and turn them on and then they double their sample rate from 22kHz to 44kHz. But I also got Sennheizer HD600 which cost about the same and I plug them into a cheap headphone amp, and these headphones are really a world appart.
Note: You have to actually find the high quality songs on Tidal to enjoy all those changes. Aim for the 24-bit 192kHz or at least 24-bit 96kHz (personally, the DAC on my Mac only offers 96kHz anyway). Remasters are often a good source, but sometimes they're from the loudness era and are horrible comparing to the originals.
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