Mobile development presents unique challenges in delivering new features and UI changes to users. We often find ourselves waiting on App Store or Play Store review cycles for even minor UI updates. Even after an update is approved, not all users install the latest version right away. This lag means some portion of our audience might be stuck on older UIs, leading to inconsistent user experiences across app versions. In traditional native development, any change to the interface — from a simple text tweak to a full layout overhaul — requires releasing a new app version. Combined with lengthy QA and release processes, this slows down our ability to respond to feedback or run timely experiments.
Teams have explored workarounds to make apps more flexible. Some have tried loading portions of the UI in a web view, essentially embedding web pages in the app to avoid full releases. Cross-platform frameworks like React Native and Flutter reduce duplicated effort across iOS and Android, but they still package a fixed UI that requires redeployment for changes. In short, mobile UIs have historically been locked in code at build time. This rigidity clashes with the fast pace of modern product iterations. We need a way to change app interfaces on the fly — one that doesn’t sacrifice native performance or user experience. This is where server-driven UI (SDUI) enters the picture.
