Discord Will Rebuild Desktop and Mobile Apps in Rust, Dropping Electron
Discord co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy said on November 5 that the company plans to rebuild its desktop and mobile clients as Rust-based native applications, with user testing planned soon.
2 sources 2h ago
Reporting from 2 sources: Denfaminicogamer, Automaton.
Why it matters
Discord's memory footprint has run from 500MB to just under 1GB in normal use, so moving off Electron to Rust and GPUI is aimed squarely at the gamers who keep it open during play.
Key Facts
- Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord co-founder and CTO, announced the Rust rebuild on November 5.
- Discord's desktop client currently uses Electron and its mobile apps use React Native.
- Vishnevskiy confirmed GPUI will be used as the GUI framework.
- The company aims to put the new clients into user testing soon.
- A screenshot attached to the post shows Discord running at about 290MB.
The desktop client currently runs on Electron and mobile on React Native. Vishnevskiy confirmed GPUI will be the GUI framework, and a posted screenshot shows Discord at about 290MB of memory.
Discord has been moving toward Rust for years. Vishnevskiy said the company began adopting the language around 2018, and its infrastructure, voice technology, and some client parts already run on it. The mobile apps will keep a native UI while sharing code with the desktop version through Rust. The desktop and mobile clients go into user testing soon.
Written with AI by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited. See our editorial policy.
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