How Do We Improve Our Most Important Page on iOS App
Article Summary
Tokopedia's homepage was crashing on millions of iOS devices. The culprit? React Native couldn't keep up with their scale.
The Tokopedia iOS team rebuilt their most critical page from scratch, moving from React Native to native Swift. This case study breaks down their architecture decisions, performance optimizations, and the dramatic results.
Key Takeaways
- Page load time dropped from 1.3 seconds to 0.6 seconds after going native
- Used AsyncDisplayKit (Texture) and IGListKit for 60fps scrolling performance
- 5MB CodePush bundles couldn't reach users fast enough during critical crashes
- Implemented custom image blurring and parallax effects for smooth UX
- Even iPhone 4S devices now run the app smoothly at 40-55fps
Tokopedia cut their homepage load time in half and achieved buttery smooth performance by ditching React Native for native iOS.
About This Article
As Tokopedia's homepage expanded, React Native's bridge became a bottleneck. The app rendered inefficiently and burned through CPU resources, making it nearly unusable on older devices like the iPhone 5.
Digital Khrisna's team rewrote the homepage in native Swift. They used AsyncDisplayKit for layout and IGListKit to manage the dynamic channel components that refresh hourly.
The native version hit 40-55fps during scrolling stress tests. Even iPhone 4S devices could run it without the white blank page that appeared in the React Native version.