Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

The cost of building native mobile apps has fallen by half, making them a competitive choice for most companies.

Shopify is transitioning its mobile application development from React Native back to native Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android, a process expected to be completed by 2026. The company initially adopted React Native in 2020, citing benefits like faster feature development and enabling developers without mobile expertise to contribute. However, significant advancements in AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) have dramatically reduced the cost and effort associated with building and maintaining native applications. Shopify's internal testing with LLMs demonstrated that the development time for native features, including implementation, translation, testing, and review, is now comparable to building features twice in a cross-platform framework. This shift allows Shopify to leverage platform-specific capabilities and tooling more effectively, moving away from the complexities of framework and dependency layers inherent in React Native. The migration of key apps, starting with the Shop app, is being facilitated by an AI-assisted system called Helix, which manages the process through iterative checkpoints for review and testing.

The strategic pivot back to native development by Shopify underscores a broader market trend accelerated by AI advancements. Previously, the primary driver for cross-platform frameworks like React Native was the efficiency gained by writing code once for multiple platforms. However, sophisticated AI coding agents have now eroded this advantage by significantly reducing the duplicated effort and cost associated with native development. This reevaluation suggests that the economic calculus for choosing between native and cross-platform mobile development has fundamentally shifted, potentially influencing other large organizations to reconsider their mobile strategies.

Shopify's approach, particularly their use of the Helix system for an AI-assisted, iterative native rebuild, offers a blueprint for managing complex migrations. The success of rebuilding the Shop app in just 12 weeks highlights the potential for AI to accelerate development cycles and improve code quality through rigorous, automated review processes. Companies still heavily invested in React Native may need to prepare for potential ecosystem shifts as major contributors like Shopify move their focus, impacting the availability of open-source libraries and community support.