Overview
- Discord confirmed on Thursday that its desktop client is being rewritten in Rust and will remove Electron and the React Native desktop codepath.
- The new desktop interface will use GPUI rather than a webview-based wrapper, while mobile will keep native user interfaces and share app logic via Rust.
- An early Windows 11 preview image shared by CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy showed an internal build called “Discord Phoenix” using about 290 MB of RAM, far lower than typical Electron-era use.
- Discord says it hopes to begin user testing soon but gave no public release date, and open questions remain about long-term memory behavior, feature parity, and compatibility with plugins and third-party tools.
- The shift responds to years of high RAM use on Windows tied to Electron’s bundled Chromium and could reduce background memory pressure for users and influence other cross-platform apps.