Stabilization was the first, enabling step. To accomplish their result, the team devised three different goals: stabilizing their codebase to get rid of the tech debt modularizing the apps into separate components modernize their design and tech-stack commitments.

After discarding the idea of a complete rewrite as well as of reusing code across platforms, they decided for a complete refactoring.Ĭhoosing this option did mean that we had to deal with our existing tech debt - we had to migrate our legacy code and re-architect the apps in place, while keeping the app shippable and continuing development of new features. When Slack engineers decided to revamp their iOS and Android apps, they had to face the reality of two several year-old codebases that had grown organically and accumulated a significant tech debt over time. Among other things, this enabled a full switch to Swift for iOS.

Slack succeeded in the effort to bring their iOS and Android apps up-to-date and adopt new design trends.

Slack mobile app technology