Shopify Is Forcing Merchants to Buy New Phones Just to Receive Order Notifications?

Shopify Discussion
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I would like to share my experience and hear from other merchants.

Shopify support recently informed me that the Shopify app now requires Android 11 or newer, and that my Huawei Mate 20 running Android 10 is no longer supported.

However, I don’t believe the issue is as simple as “your phone is too old.”

My Huawei Mate 20 works perfectly. Push notifications from other apps work without any issues. To investigate further, I also tested a second device, a Huawei P30 running Android 10, with a clean installation and fresh setup. The result was exactly the same: Shopify order notifications do not work.

What makes this even more confusing is that when I logged into Shopify on the Huawei P30, my Huawei Mate 20 immediately received a Shopify security notification warning about a login from another device.

So Shopify notifications can still reach the phone.

If security notifications work, why don’t order notifications work?

This suggests that the issue is related to changes in Shopify’s app or notification system rather than a hardware problem.

What I find particularly frustrating is that Shopify has effectively left Android 10 users behind. The app no longer appears in Google Play search results for my device, I no longer receive updates, and there was no clear warning that important functionality such as order notifications would stop working.

As a merchant, that feels disappointing and honestly a little disrespectful. My phone is still fully functional, reliable, and capable of running virtually every other app I use. Yet because of a decision made by Shopify, I am being told that the solution is to buy a different phone.

As merchants, should we really be expected to replace perfectly functional devices every time Shopify raises its minimum requirements? Today it is Android 11. What happens in a few years? Do we all need to buy new phones again because Shopify decides older devices are no longer acceptable?

I understand that software evolves, but many Android 10 devices remain reliable and fully capable of running modern applications. Requiring merchants to purchase new hardware simply to receive order notifications seems unreasonable.

Has anyone else experienced the same issue on Android 10 devices? Have you found a solution, or received a different explanation from Shopify?

I would appreciate hearing from other merchants and from the Shopify team.

Regards

Vit

2

Android 11 came out 6 years ago… have you refused to update your phone for 6 years? Lol that’s quite the gap to say Shopify is “forcing” you… We’re currently running what, Android 16 now? Time to upgrade my friend..

3

This is one way to see it.

I’m pretty sure that from the developers’ point of view it’s an issue of security. Do you still receive updates for your OS, security, and so on? Maybe…

Just like Windows stops supporting their OS after a while and most people have to move on, you can choose to stay behind, but you have to deal with that decision, because it costs all those platforms money to maintain their code, servers, and staff for all those different devices.

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Just to clarify my situation a bit better — all major and widely used apps on my Huawei Mate 20 are still working normally, including push notifications.

In fact, I still receive Shopify push alerts, for example security/login notifications (account alerts when someone logs in from another device). So the push system itself is clearly working on my device.

I’m not experiencing any general loss of functionality due to Android 10. Other apps continue to receive updates and notifications without any issues.

That’s also why this case is a bit confusing: it’s not a system-wide problem with the device or OS support in general, because everything else works as expected. The issue appears to be very specific to Shopify order notifications only.

5

When companies stop fully supporting an OS version, not everything will break right away and you can’t compare it to other widely used apps because it depends on many factors but one factor will remain the same is that eventually everyone will stop supporting older versions.

I know it sucks that everything doesn’t work the way we want it to work but thats how the world is wiith tech.

6

Hey @Craftsman_Vit . Hope you are having a good day.

Your frustration is totally valid.
You can use emails, SMS orders, and alerts on the workaround and post

On the Shopify Ideas Board to push back.

7

Hello, @Craftsman_Vit
I hope you’re having a good day
Your concern makes complete sense. In the meantime, you can rely on email or SMS order alerts as a workaround. You can also post this on the Shopify Ideas Board to get more visibility.