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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

#741

Post by necovek »

NavekG wrote: post #732
wiseowise wrote: post #693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rubbish. Most of the stuff you’re listing is handled by OS and frameworks themselves, you don’t need hundreds of SE to handle RTL or a11y. I work in one of those companies, most people just regurgitate existing shit into another form of shit and collect salary (not complaining, as I’m one of them, but let’s be honest).

The original Edge had to switch over to Chromium because it was hard to build a compliant accessible browser from scratch and this is Microsoft we are talking about.

> ...this is Microsoft we are talking about.

Exactly!

More seriously, it not just about building a compliant web browser engine, it is about tracking the dominant browser engine which introduces their own "standards" along the way too.

Microsoft could have easily continued to invest in maintaining their browser engine, but it would have to be comparable to what Google is doing, and yet they'd always be perceived as "behind" due to non-dominant position they have.

I'd say strategically they do not want to invest in tech that's not winning (in marketshare), so when they are not dominant, they'll instead adopt and extend (not just web browsers, look at WSL too).

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

#742

Post by Shorel »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #411
Shorel wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you defending Electron apps? The audacity :) Bruno consumes 300MB in RAM. The alternative I am using consumes 25 MB and it is much faster. The difference is not because some uncompressed PNG or some fonts, it's the Electron architecture that is wasteful, by design.

First off, RAM is not app size, and second, the point of having RAM is literally so it's there to be used. Sure, Chrome is absolute nonsense, but Electron is not Chrome, and an Electron app using 300 MB in memory where data needs to be uncompressed and directly accessible when your computer (including your phone) has gigabytes of the stuff to work with is just... irrelevant? That's pretty much pretending there's a pr…

I could not disagree more.

Space on disk, I have plenty. But the Electron version of many apps feels slow, sluggish, and it takes time to open, it takes time for every click to respond, it is the runtime cost what matters the most.

You say it is irrelevant? It makes a computer in 2026 feel just as fast as a computer from 2001, doing similar tasks, while the computer from 2026 is thousands of times faster.

And I definitely run more than one app at the same time.

This 300MB is the bare minimum used by these apps, in my example just an API tester. A simple "chat" app like Teams, Slack, or Discord wasting so many CPU cycles and so much memory is to me something that should feel like collective shame to our profession. Maybe that's why you disagree with me.

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

#743

Post by lysium »

kamaal wrote: post #701
railka wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, AI have changed the game, and now you can build and maintain two separate projects in Swift & Kotlin instead of one on React

If AI can make any language do anything, why move away from React Native ? What you could do with Kotlin/Swift you can do with React Native as well. This just feels like internal factions wanting their own teams, and owning their respective politics, than a discussion on Merit.

Others mention quicker startup of the app, more native-look, less head-ache w/ RN.

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

#744

Post by mentalgear »

Vegenoid wrote: post #610
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…

Spotify has progressively gotten much worse over the last 15 years, all while the size of their engineering team has ballooned. I am very unsurprised by this outcome. People wonder why good software becomes bad, and it’s because the people who were good at engineering are often outmaneuvered by corporate-politics savvy people in a growing company. One of the best political moves in a company is to have a lot of peopl…

I have the impression that for hiring this is fundamentally the most important aspect: Finding a prospect that is just skilled enough for the position without being a risk to the person who is hiring them.

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

#745

Post by pjmlp »

8n4vidtmkvmk wrote: post #691
cheema33 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is an incredibly boring task. We all want super exciting jobs. But plenty have boring jobs like this. Between not having a job or having a boring job that pays well, the choice is obvious for many of us.

Are you defending doing boring work? I personally never minded doing migrations. I guess I don't really have to anymore though. Weird.

The problem is that in many companies doing migrations would be the only job, thus now there is none.

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

#746

Post by 0xpgm »

Vegenoid wrote: post #610
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…

Spotify has progressively gotten much worse over the last 15 years, all while the size of their engineering team has ballooned. I am very unsurprised by this outcome. People wonder why good software becomes bad, and it’s because the people who were good at engineering are often outmaneuvered by corporate-politics savvy people in a growing company. One of the best political moves in a company is to have a lot of peopl…

Sometimes I wonder what the tech ecosystem would look like without the ZIRP era.

I look back over 15 years and with the exception of increased smart phone usage, everything else still looks mostly familiar. Maybe a bit more slick, but also slower and buggier despite having much better hardware.

There hasn't been a qualitative leap in software (as was in the 90s). Just larger SaaS companies. Without ZIRP would it have been any different?

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

#747

Post by whstl »

lynx97 wrote: post #731
wiseowise wrote: post #693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rubbish. Most of the stuff you’re listing is handled by OS and frameworks themselves, you don’t need hundreds of SE to handle RTL or a11y. I work in one of those companies, most people just regurgitate existing shit into another form of shit and collect salary (not complaining, as I’m one of them, but let’s be honest).

This is plain wrong. For a browser, a11y doesn't just get handled by the OS automatically. In general, claiming a11y is easy or will be done by someone else is bordering on evil.

[dead]

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

#748

Post by TuringTest »

hn993302 wrote: post #669
mitxela wrote: post #652

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some definition of pretty well which doesn't include human user numbers, revenue, profit, or ratio of humans to bots

Pretty well from an engineering perspective. But they've lost so many advertisers because it's intentionally not very moderated.

Pretty well if you don't mind some features being built twice or three times and appearing inconsistently at different screens, or users being able to bypass usage limits by pressing the back button on the usage limit sign...

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

#750

Post by literallywho »

rtpg wrote: post #617
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…

> 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! Just so it is said: my understanding is it's really easy to not end up on the credits list for games despite having worked on it. I don't know if contractors end up on there for example, at least beyond some team leads or the like. I don't know R*'s po…

I remember hearing in an old podcast (Dad & Sons), one of the guys there worked at Rockstar in QA in 2012 and he's still listed in the credits for Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), so the policies are unclear to say the least.
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