Discord drops Electron for Rust desktop app that uses less RAM

Discord is moving its desktop app fully to the Rust programming language, dropping Electron and React Native. Electron web apps are notoriously heavy on system resources, while Rust is designed for speed and memory safety. An image shared by Discord's chief technology officer shows the Windows client using 290MB of RAM, and the company hopes to begin user testing soon.

Why Discord is leaving Electron

Electron is a cross-platform framework that lets developers build desktop apps using web technologies. Discord chief technology officer Stanislav Vishnevskiy said in a post on X that the company has been an early adopter of Rust since 2018, with much of its infrastructure, voice technology, and some of the current client already using Rust. He described getting the whole client on Rust as the "holy grail."

What changes for mobile and desktop

Vishnevskiy said that means Electron goes away, and so does React Native, while mobile keeps native UI but shares app code with desktop via Rust.

RAM use and testing timeline

Vishnevskiy also shared an image of the Discord Windows client using just 290MB of RAM. That is a clear improvement, since participating in only a few servers can push RAM usage to 1GB or more using the current Windows app. Discord has not said when it will make the full switch over to Rust, but it hopes to get the new app into testing with users soon.

Sources: theverge.com