Episode 56 - The RenAIssance Edition
Liquid Weekly Podcast: Shopify Developers Talking Shopify DevelopmentShow Notes
In this reaction episode of the Liquid Weekly Podcast: Hosts Karl Meisterheim and Taylor Page take a deep dive into the Shopify Winter Editions '26 "Renaissance" release. They explore the stunning (and Easter egg-filled) visuals of the new landing page, including hidden interactive elements like the "Party in Slack like it's 1499" emoji and a Da Vinci-priced beanie. The duo breaks down the most impactful announcements for developers and merchants, including: The evolution of Sidekick into an agent that can generate apps and modify themes. The new SimGym tool for simulating shopper behavior. The introduction of Rollouts for native A/B testing. They also discuss major updates like the Shopify Product Network (effectively "Collective on steroids"), global expansion for Collective, and new B2B capabilities like ACH payments and store credit. On the technical side, they cover critical changes: the deprecation of Shopify Scripts in favor of Functions by June 2026 and the new security requirement for expiring access tokens. --- Sponsor The Support Heroes - https://thesupportheroes.com Chapters (00:00) Intro: Hunting for Easter Eggs in the Editions Site (01:51) Welcome & Winter Weather Chat (05:09) Deep Dive: Winter Editions '26 "Renaissance" Site Visuals (11:47) Sidekick Updates: App Generation, Pulse, & Automations (21:24) Agentic Commerce: Rollouts & SimGym (Shopper Simulator) (25:54) Shopify Product Network & Collective Global Expansion (31:46) B2B Updates: ACH Payments & Store Credit (33:39) The "Key" Easter Egg Struggle (38:20) Major Update: Functions Replace Scripts (June 2026) (38:59) Major Update: Enhanced Security with Expiring Tokens (49:50) Web Vitals API by Region (50:40) Picks of the Week --- Resources Shopify Winter Editions '26: Link Technical breakdown thread: Link Interesting Winter Editions X Links Ben Sehl: Link Paul Nuschke: Link Eytan Seidman: Link Jake Casto: Link Picks of the Week Karl: Endurance by F. A. Worsely - Goodreads Karl: The PITT - Wikipedia Taylor: Everand - Link
More from Liquid Weekly Podcast: Shopify Developers Talking Shopify Development
Taylor is in India for Shop Quest, so Karl flies solo with Charles Swayne, owner and app developer at JadePuma Apps and the person behind Datify. Charles is 21, learned Python in sixth grade, and now runs a multi-agent development workflow that researches, plans, audits the plan, executes, and tests itself before he ever looks at the code.
Georgi Petrov, CEO and co-founder of Uxify, joins Karl and Taylor to talk about the half of web performance nobody optimizes for: the shopper's device. After building SMS Bump (acquired by Yotpo), ConsentMo, and NitroPack (acquired by WP Engine), Georgi is now tackling device-specific friction, the laggy buttons, layout shifts, and interaction delays that vary wildly from one phone to the next. We get into how Uxify profiles a visitor's capability without touching your code, the specialized agents that fix problems on the fly, the ClickHouse-powered data layer behind it all, and how to think about performance heading into BFCM. Plus the Dev Changelog and Picks of the Week. Sponsor The Support Heroes: https://www.thesupportheroes.com/ Subscribe to Liquid Weekly Don't miss out on expert insights and tips. Subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more content like this: https://liquidweekly.com/ Find Georgi Online Uxify: https://uxify.com/integrations/shopify/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgipetrov/ Timestamps (00:00) Open (00:29) Intros (02:11) Meet Georgi Petrov of Uxify (02:54) Origin story: hardware hacking to his first software (06:03) Finding Shopify: SMS Bump, ConsentMo, and NitroPack (12:23) Making fast decisions and failing cheaply (15:32) Why Uxify: performance is half website, half device (20:11) How it works: profiling devices and adapting on the fly (26:17) Sitting alongside your theme without touching your code (28:26) Real user monitoring and specialized agents (37:47) The tech stack: ClickHouse and heavy browser testing (41:57) Shopify cart variations and a clever checkout fallback (46:24) Prepping for BFCM and who Uxify is for (51:14) Dev Changelog (58:22) Picks of the Week Dev Changelog [action required] Variants now support multiple barcodes: https://shopify.dev/changelog/product-variant-barcode-is-being-replaced-by-barcodes Create and delete dev stores in Shopify CLI: https://shopify.dev/changelog/create-and-delete-dev-stores-in-shopify-cli [action required] Discounts Allocator Function API developer preview has ended: https://shopify.dev/changelog/discounts-allocator-function-api-developer-preview-has-ended Delivery options in Shopify Functions input now expose their metafields: https://shopify.dev/changelog/delivery-options-in-shopify-functions-input-now-expose-their-metafields Prepare your app for the Shopify admin's new look: https://shopify.dev/changelog/prepare-your-app-for-the-shopify-admins-new-look [action required] Updates to Events payloads and subscription configuration: https://shopify.dev/changelog/updates-to-events-payloads-and-subscription-configuration New Pricing audit trail for contextual product variant prices: https://shopify.dev/changelog/pricing-audit-trail-for-contextual-product-variant-prices [breaking api change] [action required] Removed session.currentSession.staffMemberId from POS UI Extensions (2026-10): https://shopify.dev/changelog/removed-session-currentsession-staffmemberid-from-pos-ui-extensions-2026-10 Request a bundle size exception for existing UI extensions: https://shopify.dev/changelog/request-a-bundle-size-exception-for-existing-ui-extensions Picks of the Week Karl: Keto Oreo-style sandwich cookies (about 50 calories each), part of his ongoing tour through packaged keto snacks: https://www.choczero.com/products/keto-sandwich-cookies Georgi: Calisthenics between AI prompts. Knocking out push-ups and squats while waiting on an agent, which he says burns the time well and sharpens his focus when he comes back. Taylor: Ted Lasso, season 4 on Apple TV+. Still, in his words, one of the most wholesome shows around: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10986410/
Prakhar Shrivastava of FoxSell joins Karl and Taylor to talk about Shop Quest, the Shopify community event he and his team run in Bengaluru, and to prep Taylor for his first trip to India.
In this episode of the Liquid Weekly Podcast, hosts Karl Meisterheim and Taylor Page are joined by Alexander Hupfer, founder of Fusion Metrics and a solo Shopify app developer.
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