SUMMARYDiscord is replacing its Electron-based desktop client with a Rust-built app intended to lower resource usage and improve performance and memory safety. Chief technology officer Stanislav Vishnevskiy said Discord has used Rust since 2018 across much of its infrastructure and voice technology, and that mobile will keep native UI while sharing app code with desktop through Rust. A Windows client image showed RAM use at 290MB, and user testing is expected soon.
Discord is replacing Electron with a desktop client built fully in Rust, which the company says should significantly reduce the app's notoriously high resource usage while improving performance and memory safety. "We've been early adopters of Rust since 2018 and a lot of our infra, voice tech, and even some of the current client is already Rust, the holy grail was getting the whole client there," explains Discord chief technology officer Stanislav Vishnevskiy in a post on X. "That means Electron goes away, and so does React Native, mobile keeps native UI but shares app code with desktop via Rust." The Verge reports: Vishnevskiy also shared an image of the Discord Windows client using just 290MB of RAM, which is a clear improvement as you only have to participate in a few servers and RAM usage can easily hit 1GB or more using the current Windows app. It's not clear when Discord will make the full switch over to Rust, but Vishnevskiy says the company "hope to get it into testing with users soon."