Technology1 min read

Discord is ditching Electron and its new app uses less RAM

By · Via The Verge · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Discord is replacing the resource-heavy Electron framework and React Native by completely rebuilding its desktop application in Rust. This engineering shift will allow mobile devices to run native interfaces while sharing underlying core code directly with the desktop software. The memory footprint will drop drastically, with early Windows testing showing memory usage at just 290MB compared to the current 1GB or more required for a few servers. Testing with users is expected to begin soon, though a finalized launch date remains unannounced.

Key points

  • Discord intends to significantly lower client memory consumption compared to current buil…: Discord intends to significantly lower client memory consumption compared to current builds that routinely exceed 1GB.
  • The platform has integrated Rust into its infrastructure and voice technology systems sin…: The platform has integrated Rust into its infrastructure and voice technology systems since 2018.
  • Public testing for the new Rust-powered client architecture is scheduled to commence in t…: Public testing for the new Rust-powered client architecture is scheduled to commence in the near future.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Discord is finally giving up on Electron, the cross-platform framework that lets developers build desktop apps using web technologies. Electron web apps are notoriously heavy on system resources, and Discord is now moving its desktop app fully to Rust — a modern programming language designed for speed and memory safety.

Discord is ditching Electron and its new app uses less RAM

Discord is moving its apps fully over to the Rust programming language.

Discord is moving its apps fully over to the Rust programming language.

“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.”

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…

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