Discord is rewriting its desktop app in Rust and dropping Electron, with early builds showing dramatically reduced resource usage. The new client, listed as "Discord Phoenix," uses just 290.2 MB of RAM, compared to Steam's WebHelper at 856 MB and Battle.net at 344 MB. This represents a significant improvement over Discord's previous client, which normally stays under 1 GB and once triggered auto-restart at 4 GB. The rewrite also promises faster boot times, with Vishnevskiy sharing clips showing the new interface clicking around "feels instant."
On the mobile front, Discord is dropping React Native to keep native interfaces while sharing app code through Rust. The desktop UI is built on GPUI, a Rust framework from the team behind the Zed code editor, moving away from the initially guessed Tauri. While no release date is set, Discord aims to test the new build with users soon. The company joins other speed improvements in the gaming sector, with Epic claiming its launcher starts 46% faster than Steam and Microsoft's Xbox PC app launching up to 60% faster for Insiders. With RAM prices current, lighter apps are a welcome change for PC gamers.
Source: TechPowerUp News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing