Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Shopify is migrating its mobile apps from React Native back to native Swift and Kotlin, citing LLM agents as the reason.
Shopify announced it will migrate all its mobile apps (Shop, Shopify, Point of Sale, Inbox) from React Native to native Swift and Kotlin, driven by improvements in LLM coding agents. The company rebuilt the Shop app in 12 weeks using greenfield development and a custom system called Helix. Key native libraries (React Native Skia, FlashList, Restyle) will be transitioned to new stewards or archived. Shopify argues that LLMs now reduce the cost of maintaining two native codebases enough to outweigh the benefits of shared cross-platform code.
What commenters are saying
Top commenters generally support the move, with several predicting this will become a broader trend as LLMs reduce the pain of maintaining multiple native codebases. Some push back: one skeptical commenter questions whether the full story is about losing native engineers rather than pure technical merit, and another warns that cross-platform frameworks still matter when targeting more than two platforms. Several smaller-shop developers note that for startups without Shopify's resources, cross-platform solutions like Flutter or web-first approaches remain far more practical than going fully native.