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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

#841

Post by abustamam »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #797
cwackerfuss wrote: post #674

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t tell if we’re trolling at this point with the mixing up of Shopify and Spotify

Poor reading comprehension is more likely than trolling.

Or I just made a typo. I dont think anyone actually has the understanding that Shopify is a music streaming service and Spotify is a shopping plug-in. I was addressing the latter half of gp's comment which was saying that Spotify has had no problems and I wrote (or perhaps got autocorrected, as I had to correct my phone several times writing this comment).

I cant speak for the rest of the commenters.

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

#842

Post by saagarjha »

nfw2 wrote: post #550
bluGill wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know iOS so I can't say, but a good UX does depend in part on platform expectations and every system historically been different. The compromises mean the each have good reason for what they do (sometimes anyway), but switching is hard.

I've used both in the past 2 years and can tell you these particular systems aren't meaningfully different in any way that affects third party apps.

That's because you must be using cross-platform apps.

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

#843

Post by bluGill »

nfw2 wrote: post #550
bluGill wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know iOS so I can't say, but a good UX does depend in part on platform expectations and every system historically been different. The compromises mean the each have good reason for what they do (sometimes anyway), but switching is hard.

I've used both in the past 2 years and can tell you these particular systems aren't meaningfully different in any way that affects third party apps.

It shows the sad state of user experience that applications completely ignore how different platforms function. For websites, I would expect them to follow the web conventions of UX. However, as soon as you're in a "native" application, you need to function like the device you're running on wants to function. Otherwise, it's going to be a jarring user experience for everyone in there. The whole system becomes harder to use.

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

#844

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#845

Post by Cthulhu_ »

ernsheong wrote: post #479

It seems like Shopify has fallen into a trap thinking that more complexity costs nothing because of AI. In the age of AI we have to embrace the same principle as before that complexity needs to be tamed, not multiplied. Even as humans struggled with complexity, from what I see now AI struggles very much the same. Hence I don't think this will age well.

Armchair / gut feeling opinion: using AI makes a developer feel like they can manage more code than they normally would. But it's a risk, if an agent can no longer make sense of the code, or the developer can no longer make sense of what the AI is saying, you're in trouble.

Not a new problem, of course - developers wrangling large amounts of code (more than they should or can) is a recurring challenge in the industry.

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

#847

Post by wesleywt »

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…

Comparing Chrome in 2008 to a company in 2026 is a choice.

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

#848

Post by IshKebab »

simonhamp wrote: post #592
IshKebab wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of this article is that it doesn't. Or at least for the same number of people you can now have way more code.

Is more code the right goal?

No. The point is that the goal (slick native apps) isn't blocked by the fact that it needs more code.

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

#849

Post by matsemann »

alt227 wrote: post #827
darkvertex wrote: post #753

Earlier quoted context omitted.

15 years of extremely well paid engineers and yet we still cannot delete a track from Recently Listened. ಠ _ ಠ

Recently listened is an automatic list like a log, not user curated. I would never expect to be able to delete things from that list.

I don't need an audit log for my audio. What I do need however is to remove something so it doesn't influence the algorithm. I may not remember every time I play music for a kid to turn on the right mode.

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

#850

Post by littlecranky67 »

prisonguard wrote: post #776
littlecranky67 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same result here just using plain Opus 4.8+. I had a web ap with a PWA approach. Now I have an iOS app written in Swift/SwiftUI and an Android app in Kotlin in the appstores. I do not know how to code a single line of Swift or Kotlin. You just test the app and iterate with the AI over it until it is stable and does what it should.

> I do not know how to code a single line of Swift or Kotlin sounds like your app is nothing serious

Why would you asume that, and how do you define serious? Ever since the iOS appstore presence I get more signups from organic app store searches + installs, which results to some percentage in new daily+monthly active users. Meaning: People use the native app and keep using it. That is how I would define have value, as it provides value to the users - else they wouldn't be using it.
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