Shopify has announced it will move its mobile apps away from React Native and back to separate native codebases: Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android. The company frames this as a response to shifted circumstances rather than a repudiation of the technology.
Why they chose React Native in 2020
Shopify switched to React Native in 2020 for three stated reasons:
- To avoid building the same features twice.
- To allow developers to work across the stack.
- To spend less time chasing feature parity and more time shipping value.
The company says those goals were valid at the time, and it credits React Native as a "great platform" during the six years it used it.
What changed now
Shopify notes that native development still means building and maintaining software on two platforms, so that cost has not disappeared. What has changed is that "agents" — described by the company as tools or workflows capable of handling significant portions of implementation, translation, testing, and review work — can now perform enough of this cross‑platform work that the original tradeoff is no longer decisive. As a result, the benefits that motivated the 2020 move to React Native no longer outweigh the costs in Shopify’s current context.
Libraries and next steps
Shopify is the maintainer of three notable React Native libraries: react-native-skia, flash-list, and restyle. According to the announcement, the first two libraries will find new homes, while restyle — which has a smaller user base than the others — will be archived at the end of 2026.
The company emphasizes that the decision is pragmatic: React Native played an important role for several years, but Shopify now believes native Swift and Kotlin codebases better serve the needs of its mobile products.
Why this matters
Shopify’s reversal is a notable signal in the mobile development ecosystem. A major platform that successfully scaled with React Native has decided native development offers advantages that justify the dual‑platform work. The change also highlights how new agent‑driven workflows and tooling can shift the balance of costs and benefits in platform and architecture decisions.
