Discord is moving its desktop application away from the Electron framework to the Rust programming language, aiming to significantly reduce memory consumption.
Discord is transitioning its desktop applications away from the Electron framework, a cross-platform framework that allows developers to build desktop apps using web technologies. The company is moving its desktop app fully to Rust, a modern programming language designed for speed and memory safety.
Discord Chief Technology Officer Stanislav Vishnevskiy confirmed the shift in a post on X. Vishnevskiy stated, “We’ve been early adopters of Rust since 2018 and a lot of our infra, voice tech, and even some of the current client is already Rust, the holy grail was getting the whole client there.”
According to Vishnevskiy, the transition will result in the following changes:
Vishnevskiy also clarified the technology being used for the interface, stating, “And it’s not Tauri, it’s GPUI, so good guess everyone.”
The move aims to address high memory consumption associated with Electron-based applications. Electron apps are packaged with their own copy of Chromium, which can lead to heavy system resource usage. Discord has acknowledged that its Windows app can reach 4GB of RAM. In December 2025, a Discord employee noted in a Reddit post, “Yes, we’re testing a restart when memory exceeds 4GB (normal usage is <1GB).”
Discord has previously reported seeing a "5% reduction in p95 memory so far" through other work. The company noted that they "uncovered issues upstream at the platform/OS/driver/hardware level, and we’ve worked closely with partners to provide stand-alone repros and ultimately fixes."
An early Windows 11 screenshot of the new Rust-based client, referred to as “Discord Phoenix,” shows the application using 290.2MB of RAM. This is a significant decrease compared to current usage, where RAM usage can hit 1GB or more when participating in several servers, or even reach 4GB.
While the company has shared details regarding the technology and the performance benefits, a specific date for the full transition has not been provided. Vishnevskiy stated that the company "hope to get it into testing with users soon."
Windows Latest reports that the new client will no longer feature a “Starting” screen, as it will no longer need to load Electron libraries during launch.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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