What “native” means for a Shopify mobile app — and why it decides what the app can do
What you actually get
A Shopify native mobile app — real iOS and Android, not a website in a shell.
Two apps, one for iPhone and one for Android, submitted under your own
developer accounts and listed on the App Store and Google Play. Shopify
stays the commerce system underneath: same catalogue, same stock, same
checkout.
What “native” means, and the three things people mean by it
The word is used to sell all three, so it is worth separating them before
anybody quotes you.
A wrapped website
Your mobile site inside an app window. Cheapest to make and the easiest
to recognise: it is as slow as the site, it has the site’s navigation,
and Apple regularly rejects it under the guideline about apps that are
repackaged websites.
A cross-platform app
One codebase producing a Shopify iOS app and a Shopify Android app that
both use real platform components. This is what most Shopify cross
platform mobile app work is, ours included, and for a shopping app it
is the right trade: the parts that matter — scrolling, images,
navigation, notifications — are the platform’s own.
Two separate codebases
A native iOS app written once and a native Android app written again.
Better in a handful of cases involving heavy device hardware, and
roughly double the cost to build and to maintain. Very few shopping
apps need it and we will say so.
What we build with
React Native, which produces a real iOS app and a real Android app from
one codebase. It is what Shopify’s own Shop app is built with, and it
is the reason a Shopify React Native app can be maintained by a small
team without the cost doubling every time something changes.
What that gives a merchant, in the terms that matter rather than the
technical ones: the app opens in about a second on a mid-range phone,
scrolling is the platform’s own rather than a web page pretending, and
a Shopify native iOS app and a Shopify native Android app stay in step
with each other because a change is made once.
What only a real app can do
-
A push notification. A mobile website cannot reliably
send one on iOS, and on Android it needs a permission almost nobody
grants to a website. This is the whole argument for an app and it is
not available to a web page. -
A place on the home screen. Being installed rather
than remembered, which is the difference between being found again
and being searched for again. -
An App Store listing. A Shopify app for the App Store
and a Shopify Android Google Play app can both be found by people who
were not looking for you, which no amount of mobile web work achieves. -
Wallet payment without typing. Apple Pay and Google
Pay inside the app, which removes the step where most mobile
checkouts are lost.
Both platforms, one build
There is no separate quote for a Shopify iPhone app and a Shopify Android
app. A Shopify app for iPhone and Android is one project, submitted twice.
iOS
Submitted to the Apple App Store under your own developer account.
Apple reviews every submission and asks for real functionality beyond
a website — which a native app has, and a wrapped site does not.
Review usually takes one to three days.
Android
Submitted to Google Play under your own account. Review is usually
faster than Apple’s and the requirements around data disclosure are
stricter, which is a form to fill in accurately rather than a
barrier.
Both, kept in step
One codebase means a change reaches both stores in the same release
rather than one platform running three versions behind. That is the
practical benefit of cross-platform development and it is invisible
until the first time you need to change something quickly.
Questions about platforms
Do you need separate apps for iPhone and Android?
Two listings, one build. The app is written once and submitted to both the App Store and Google Play, so there is one project and one price rather than two.
Is a native app really faster than a mobile website?
On a mid-range phone, noticeably. The app holds its own images and layout on the device, so opening it is not a fresh download of the whole page. The gap is largest exactly where it matters most — on an older phone on mobile data.
Is a progressive web app a substitute for a real app?
For some things, and not for the two that decide it. A progressive web app cannot reliably send a push notification on iOS and cannot be listed on the App Store, which are the two capabilities an app is usually bought for.
Who owns the app — you or TicApp?
You do. The apps are submitted under your own Apple and Google developer accounts, so the listings, the reviews and the download numbers are yours and remain yours if you stop working with us.
Does Apple approve every store app that is submitted?
No, and the most common rejection is exactly the one this page is about: an app that is a repackaged website. An app with real native functionality — notifications, offline browsing, wallet payment — passes. We handle the submission and the response to any review note.
One clarification on vocabulary, because it causes real confusion when
quotes are compared. A native ecommerce app, a native mobile application
for Shopify, a React Native ecommerce app and a Shopify Android ecommerce
app can all describe the same thing. What separates them is not the name:
it is whether the app can send a notification, whether it survives Apple
review, and how fast it opens on a four-year-old phone. We publish your
Shopify app to Google Play and the App Store either way.
See what a native app looks like before you commit.
Install one we have already shipped, or assemble your own screens in the builder and send them to us.