Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

Shopify Shifts Mobile Development Strategy Away from React Native

Shopify has announced a move away from React Native for its mobile applications, transitioning to native development using Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android. The company detailed the change in an engineering blog post published on shopify.engineering, which quickly gained traction on Hacker News with over 1,200 points.

What Changed

Shopify’s engineering team is rewriting its mobile codebase in native languages rather than continuing to rely on React Native, the cross-platform framework built on JavaScript and React. This reverses a strategy Shopify had previously championed, having been one of the more visible enterprise adopters of React Native in its consumer and merchant-facing apps.

Why This Matters for Shopify App Developers

This shift is significant for third-party developers building apps within the Shopify ecosystem, particularly those maintaining companion mobile apps or extensions that interact with Shopify’s mobile surfaces. Shopify’s own technology choices often signal broader platform direction, including tooling, SDKs, and documentation priorities. Developers who built React Native components expecting long-term alignment with Shopify’s internal stack may need to reassess their mobile architecture roadmap.

The move also reflects a broader industry conversation about the tradeoffs between cross-platform frameworks and native development, particularly around performance, platform API access, and long-term maintenance costs at scale.

Practical Implications

Shopify app developers should watch for updates to official SDKs, mobile app extension frameworks, and any React Native-based tooling Shopify has previously supported. Teams currently building or maintaining React Native apps that integrate with Shopify’s Admin API, Storefront API, or POS systems should monitor Shopify’s engineering blog for migration guidance or deprecation timelines. SaaS founders building mobile-first Shopify apps may want to ev

Read the full announcement →