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And in a couple of years, "Why we are moving away from React Native at Shopify". Not slamming React Native but the sensationalistic headline. Anyone with a bit

And in a couple of years, "Why we are moving away from React Native at Shopify". Not slamming React Native but the sensationalistic headline. Anyone with a bit of experience in software should know better than making this kind of silly proclamation about the future of your software stack.

chrisan 7y ago
Man first thing I thought of. Seems like if you try to proclaim the future you end up eating your words
- skinnyasianboi 7y ago
  My first thought was the Airbnb article "React Native at Airbnb" https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/react-native-at-airbnb-f95aa460be1c https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/react-native-at-airbnb...
  - liamcardenas 7y ago
    I understand how examples like this stick in people's minds, however, just because one company decided not to move forward with a technology doesn't mean that all companies will do the same. Facebook has continued to use it, Microsoft has begun using it heavily, Twitter uses it on the web[0], Discord has been very happy with it -- and countless other examples. [0] https://github.com/necolas/react-native-web https://github.com/necolas/react-native-web
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
elicash 7y ago
I don't think anybody read the headline and assumed that no other technology would ever be used at Shopify.
seanalltogether 7y ago
The company I've been contracting for lasted just over a year on react native before heading back to native. Even though the product was still a prototype, we were spending way too much time updating libraries and trying to decipher all the breaking dependencies. Some easy, some very cryptic. On a side note, I'm not a big fan of people shoehorning stateless web development patterns into application environments that support stateful development. The solutions appropriate for development inside a web page are often not helpful inside an application binary.
sschueller 7y ago
I have not seen one good app for android that has been written in react native. Can anyone show me one that doesn't suck in performance?
- jchw 7y ago
  From my understanding, it does exist in popular Android apps, but usually for larger apps its used for only parts of the app and not the entire app. Discord is an interesting case. They were using React Native for iOS and not Android. In their defense, this probably makes sense since substantial code sharing could be achieved between their desktop/web app and their iPhone app with this approach.
- solarkraft 7y ago
  I'm pretty okay with the Spotify app nowadays. It used to be worse, I think, now I'm rather annoyed by the not that great UI/UX design (everything is way too large, I don't see shit, man).
- chrisco255 7y ago
  Instagram.
  - deminature 7y ago
    Instagram has very limited parts of the application written in RN, like 'Edit Profile'. [1] The vast majority of the app is implemented natively. [1] https://instagram-engineering.com/react-native-at-instagram-dd828a9a90c7#.3h4wir4zr https://instagram-engineering.com/react-native-at-instagram-...
    - chrisco255 7y ago
      That article is 3 years old, but it mentions "Photos Of view", "Post Promote", "Save Posts", "Checkpoints", "Comment Moderation", "Lead Gen Ads", "Push Notification Settings", and "SMS Captcha Checkpoint". At any rate, I'm curious to see how this has evolved over the past 3 years and I remain impressed with their seamless integration of RN and native.
jarnagin 7y ago
Seems consistent with your comment, IMO, given that "the future" is by definition something which never arrives. It's much less exciting, however, to say "React Native Is What's Next at Shopify".
wpietri 7y ago
Sadly, this sort of public PR campaign is surely related to an internal PR campaign. Often followed by a declaration of Totally Amazing Success, shortly after which the person who led the campaign will use the victory to move to a higher position, possibly at a new company.
- otaviokz 7y ago
  Saw it happening a few times in my 12 year of industry. I suppose it's specifically common in companies that use social media (and other media) presence as a recruitment boosting tool. Twice the "leader" of the "Totally Amazing Success" left the company to "be totally amazing" somewhere else. In both cases the team was made mostly of very young engineers, the level of amazingness was strongly overestimated. It was also declared very early, before the "novelty" of the "new thing" faded, and also before the downsides appeared while maintaining the product.
  - ryandrake 7y ago
    RDD: Resume-Driven Development You often see this kind of stack rank of developer priorities: 1. What’s good for my career 2. What makes my boss look good 3. What is convenient for the development team 4. What is good for the company ... 99. What’s good for users

chrisan 7y ago

Man first thing I thought of. Seems like if you try to proclaim the future you end up eating your words

skinnyasianboi 7y ago
My first thought was the Airbnb article "React Native at Airbnb" https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/react-native-at-airbnb-f95aa460be1c https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/react-native-at-airbnb...
- liamcardenas 7y ago
  I understand how examples like this stick in people's minds, however, just because one company decided not to move forward with a technology doesn't mean that all companies will do the same. Facebook has continued to use it, Microsoft has begun using it heavily, Twitter uses it on the web[0], Discord has been very happy with it -- and countless other examples. [0] https://github.com/necolas/react-native-web https://github.com/necolas/react-native-web
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

elicash 7y ago

I don't think anybody read the headline and assumed that no other technology would ever be used at Shopify.

seanalltogether 7y ago

The company I've been contracting for lasted just over a year on react native before heading back to native. Even though the product was still a prototype, we were spending way too much time updating libraries and trying to decipher all the breaking dependencies. Some easy, some very cryptic. On a side note, I'm not a big fan of people shoehorning stateless web development patterns into application environments that support stateful development. The solutions appropriate for development inside a web page are often not helpful inside an application binary.

sschueller 7y ago

I have not seen one good app for android that has been written in react native. Can anyone show me one that doesn't suck in performance?

jchw 7y ago
From my understanding, it does exist in popular Android apps, but usually for larger apps its used for only parts of the app and not the entire app. Discord is an interesting case. They were using React Native for iOS and not Android. In their defense, this probably makes sense since substantial code sharing could be achieved between their desktop/web app and their iPhone app with this approach.
solarkraft 7y ago
I'm pretty okay with the Spotify app nowadays. It used to be worse, I think, now I'm rather annoyed by the not that great UI/UX design (everything is way too large, I don't see shit, man).
chrisco255 7y ago
Instagram.
- deminature 7y ago
  Instagram has very limited parts of the application written in RN, like 'Edit Profile'. [1] The vast majority of the app is implemented natively. [1] https://instagram-engineering.com/react-native-at-instagram-dd828a9a90c7#.3h4wir4zr https://instagram-engineering.com/react-native-at-instagram-...
  - chrisco255 7y ago
    That article is 3 years old, but it mentions "Photos Of view", "Post Promote", "Save Posts", "Checkpoints", "Comment Moderation", "Lead Gen Ads", "Push Notification Settings", and "SMS Captcha Checkpoint". At any rate, I'm curious to see how this has evolved over the past 3 years and I remain impressed with their seamless integration of RN and native.

jarnagin 7y ago

Seems consistent with your comment, IMO, given that "the future" is by definition something which never arrives. It's much less exciting, however, to say "React Native Is What's Next at Shopify".

wpietri 7y ago

Sadly, this sort of public PR campaign is surely related to an internal PR campaign. Often followed by a declaration of Totally Amazing Success, shortly after which the person who led the campaign will use the victory to move to a higher position, possibly at a new company.

otaviokz 7y ago
Saw it happening a few times in my 12 year of industry. I suppose it's specifically common in companies that use social media (and other media) presence as a recruitment boosting tool. Twice the "leader" of the "Totally Amazing Success" left the company to "be totally amazing" somewhere else. In both cases the team was made mostly of very young engineers, the level of amazingness was strongly overestimated. It was also declared very early, before the "novelty" of the "new thing" faded, and also before the downsides appeared while maintaining the product.
- ryandrake 7y ago
  RDD: Resume-Driven Development You often see this kind of stack rank of developer priorities: 1. What’s good for my career 2. What makes my boss look good 3. What is convenient for the development team 4. What is good for the company ... 99. What’s good for users