The news
Shopify is retiring script tags, an old way for apps to add JavaScript to an online store. Since 1 October 2026, apps can no longer create or update them, whichever API version they use. Script tags already in place keep running until 1 March 2027, when Shopify will stop loading them on storefronts.
Anything an app still loads this way, such as a chat button, a pop-up, a delivery date badge or a tracking code, will stop on that date unless the app has moved to one of Shopify's newer methods. Shopify asks developers to use app embed blocks, which merchants switch on in the theme editor, or web pixels for code that only collects analytics.
Custom apps created in the Shopify admin, often by an agency for one store, are affected too and cannot use these replacements. Shopify's developer guide says their scripts have to be moved into the theme instead. The guide also says Shopify had planned a warning banner for merchants who install an app that still uses script tags, but has dropped it for now.
Script tags on the order status page were covered by an earlier deadline and have already stopped working there. Shipping company Bigblue, for example, has told users of its Shopify app that its delivery date badge may stop showing unless they move to the app embed before 1 March 2027.
What it means for you
- A feature on your store can disappear on 1 March 2027 without any change on your side, if the app behind it has not been updated.
- When an app moves to an app embed, the feature stays off until you switch it on in the theme editor, on the theme you actually publish.
- If an old script tag and its replacement run at the same time, the code loads twice, which can double count sales in your analytics or show a widget twice.
- Code that an agency added through a custom app has no ready replacement and needs a developer to move it.
What to do now
- Ask the developer of each app on your store whether it still uses script tags, and when it will move.
- In Online Store > Themes > Customize, open App embeds and switch on the embeds your apps now provide.
- Ask whoever built your custom apps to move their scripts before March, and to remove the old script tags once the replacement works.
- After each change, open your store and your analytics to check that nothing is missing or counted twice.
How Didset can help
We build Shopify apps on app embeds and web pixels, and we can move an older custom app's scripts to a supported setup before the deadline.
Talk to us about it
