Discord's new Rust client, dubbed Discord Phoenix, dramatically outperforms its Electron predecessor in a side-by-side video shared by CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy that garnered 2.3 million views. Filmed on Lenovo ThinkPads with Copilot keys, the 15-second clip shows the Rust client loading its friends list before the Electron app clears its "Starting" screen — both launched cold. The new client uses just 290.2MB of RAM with two accounts signed in simultaneously, roughly 70% less than the Electron version's typical 1GB+ footprint.
Discord engineers confirm the speed isn't from tray pre-loading. Audio lead Coral notes the architecture bootstraps so fast it eliminates the update modal entirely, with background auto-updates replacing the old "Starting" screen. The rebuild also supports running work and personal accounts concurrently without restarting. While one critic called 290MB "still vile," Vishnevskiy countered that avatar decorations drive some overhead, emphasizing the dual-account capability. The comparison underscores a broader shift: native Rust tooling can deliver desktop experiences that feel instant, challenging Electron's dominance on Windows 11.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing