How Slack Scales Its Mobile Codebases: Modernization
Original post Scaling Slack’s Mobile Codebases: Modernization
Article Summary
Tracy Stampfli and Bryan Stern reveal how Slack's 18-month mobile overhaul turned their codebase into a speed machine. The results? iOS CI merge times dropped 64% and local builds are now 50% faster.
This is the final post in Slack's Duplo initiative series, focusing on the Modernization phase. After stabilizing and modularizing their iOS and Android codebases, Slack's mobile teams tackled architecture updates, adopted modern frameworks like Combine and Jetpack Compose, and set themselves up for future innovation.
Key Takeaways
- iOS reached 68% modernized and 81% modularized with 280 new modules added
- Android hit 92% modularization with 330 modules and 92% Kotlin adoption
- CI build stability jumped from 77% to 90% on iOS year over year
- Developer sentiment surveys showed steadily improving confidence in code quality
- Mobile development now matches or beats desktop speed for some features
Slack's Duplo initiative transformed their mobile codebases through strict architectural patterns, modern framework adoption, and aggressive modularization, resulting in dramatically faster builds and happier developers.
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This page summarizes “Scaling Slack’s Mobile Codebases: Modernization” by Slack, published May 4, 2022. All credit for the original work goes to the authors.
