Shopify is going native

After six years on React Native, Shopify is rebuilding its mobile apps in Swift and Kotlin. Coding agents changed the math twice.

“Native is now the future of mobile at Shopify”

The 2020 bet worked

React Native let Shopify build features once, brought in developers with no mobile background, and ended the constant chase for feature parity.

“that bet has been extremely successful”

Last year's answer was yes

In January 2025 the company publicly recommitted to React Native. That was honest given what was known then, and the framework still works well.

“the future of React Native was bright”

One assumption collapsed

Building the same feature twice used to mean twice the work. Better coding models made that stop being true for Shopify's apps and team.

“LLMs changed one of the core assumptions behind our 2020 decision”

Success is not a lock-in

Shopify reevaluated the whole mobile stack from first principles rather than defend a choice because it had paid off before.

“We don't hold on to a decision just because it was successful at the time.”

The tax they accepted

React Native cost real time in performance tuning, foundational fixes, and chasing framework and dependency updates. The benefits outweighed it.

LLMs since 2021

Shopify started using models for features, bug fixes, and code review a year before ChatGPT. The work they trusted models with grew as the models did.

“one year before ChatGPT!”

The prototype surprise

Rebuilding core parts of the biggest apps in Swift and Kotlin with agents worked better than expected, including porting an iOS feature to Android by reference.

Parity got cheap

Shared specs, tests, and review checkpoints cut the cost of keeping two platforms in sync, and agents helped developers contribute outside their main stack.

Two platforms, still

The duplication cost has not vanished. Agents now absorb enough of the implementation, translation, testing, and review that it stopped being decisive.

“that cost has not disappeared”

Not a speed complaint

Shopify says its React Native apps are fast. The pull is fewer layers between code and platform, closer access to first-party tooling.

“React Native apps can be fast. Ours are.”

Skia gets a new home

Shopify sponsors React Native Skia through end of 2026. William Candillon will fork it under a new name, and the original repo gets archived.

FlashList needs a steward

At roughly 2M downloads a week, FlashList keeps getting critical compatibility fixes while Shopify talks to companies about long-term ownership.

“~2M downloads/week”

Restyle winds down

Smaller user base, so the repo is archived. It keeps working through 2026, then maintenance stops. Forks welcome, with handover help offered.

Greenfield, not gradual

Last time Shopify migrated in place to avoid pausing feature work. This time agents made full rebuilds fast enough that a clean slate won.

Shop rebuilt in 12 weeks

The Shop app went from proof of concept to a fully native app in the stores in twelve weeks. The Shopify app, 300+ screens plus widgets and a Watch app, ships later this year.

One-shotting produces slop

Pointing an LLM at the React Native codebase, even with frozen specs and task files, yields piles of unmaintainable code that cannot ship.

“it doesn't work”

Helix gates every step

Helix slices a screen into small checkpoints. Each must pass tests, a visual match, two adversarial reviewers, and a human before the next begins.

“an imperfect attempt simply cannot move forward until it becomes a good result”

Simulators were the bottleneck

Agents change code in seconds but waited minutes to test it, stuck driving simulators through accessibility trees and screenshots.

“It doesn't matter how good the model is if it can't test its work quickly”

Architecture for agents

Business logic is decoupled from UI and runs headless on desktop behind a CLI, so agents inspect state, navigate, and act in milliseconds and work for hours alone.