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Discord’s co-founder and CTO shared a video comparing the company’s new Rust-based Windows client with its current Electron app. Discord staff said both were cold starts; the new client loaded its friends list sooner and showed 290.2 MB of RAM while running two accounts, but this was not a controlled, like-for-like benchmark.
Discord co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy has shared a video comparing the company’s new Rust-based Windows client with its existing Electron app, showing the new version loading its friends list sooner and using 290.2 MB of RAM in a displayed snapshot. Discord employees said both apps were launched from a cold start, but the comparison is a demonstration rather than a published, controlled benchmark.
In the clip, filmed on two Lenovo ThinkPads running Windows 11, the existing client is opened first. It displays a blank window, then a startup tip, before reaching its interface. The Rust client is opened roughly a second and a half later and appears in under a second; by the time the older app finishes loading, the new client has loaded its friends list. The report by Windows Latest said the clip had 2.3 million views when it published, though that count is a point-in-time figure.
Discord audio and video lead Coral said on X that both launches were cold starts, rejecting suggestions that the newer app had simply been reopened from the system tray. Coral also said the new client bootstraps quickly enough not to need the old app’s “Starting” screen and that it updates in the background. Asked whether updates currently go through the Microsoft Store or Windows Update, Coral said they do not.
The RAM figure came with an important qualification: Vishnevskiy said the new client was running two accounts concurrently. The reading is not a matched comparison of both clients under the same conditions. Windows Latest described it as an early-build snapshot and said it had not yet conducted its own side-by-side test.
What the Faster Client Could Change
The demonstration points to a practical trade-off in desktop app design: a client built around native code and a dedicated interface framework may start faster and use less memory than a comparable app built on a bundled browser runtime. For Discord users, lower resource use could matter when the app runs alongside games, video calls, browsers or other demanding software. Faster startup could also reduce friction for people who open the client frequently.
But the clip does not establish how much faster the new client will be across different Windows PCs, or how its memory use compares under equivalent workloads. The 290.2 MB reading includes two signed-in accounts, but there is no corresponding Electron measurement in the reported test. The example is promising evidence about Discord’s rebuild, not proof that every Windows app should abandon Electron or that another framework will deliver the same result.
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Discord’s Move Beyond Electron
Discord’s current desktop client is built with Electron, which packages web technologies and a Chromium-based runtime into a desktop application. The company has also tried improving the existing client: according to its September patch notes, an upgrade to Electron 42 reduced median CPU usage by about 17%, while increasing median memory use by about 4%. Those figures describe a specific update and are not a direct comparison with the Rust client.
The replacement uses Rust for application code and GPUI, a GPU-accelerated interface framework made by the creators of the Zed code editor. Unlike Tauri, which uses Rust alongside a system webview to display a web-based interface, GPUI draws the interface without HTML, according to the source report. Discord has used Rust since 2018. The company has not, in the material provided, published a full technical comparison or a release schedule for the Windows client.
“The new Discord client using less RAM is just part of the story. Clicking around feels instant, I can’t go back. Check out the boot time.”
— Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord co-founder and CTO
Benchmark and Release Details Missing
Discord has not provided a like-for-like performance benchmark in the source material. The video does not report a consistent measurement protocol, repeated trials, or comparable RAM readings for both apps under the same account and activity conditions. Results may also differ by hardware, Windows configuration and client build.
The Rust client is described as an early build, and the material does not state when it will be generally available or whether all existing Discord features are already supported. Discord also has not supplied a migration timeline for the Electron app. Its background-update approach is described by an employee, but the source does not explain update controls, rollout plans or whether the mechanism will change before release.
Awaiting Public Tests and Rollout
The next useful measure will be a public release or hands-on testing that compares both clients on the same machines, with the same accounts and workloads. Windows Latest said it plans to test the Rust version when it gets access. Such testing could show whether the startup and memory differences in the video persist beyond this demonstration.
Discord has not announced a release date in the source material. Until it does, users should treat the clip as an early look at the company’s direction, not a confirmation that the Electron client is being replaced immediately or that the displayed resource use is typical.
Key Questions
What did Discord show in the video?
Discord co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy shared a side-by-side launch comparison. The Rust client loaded its friends list before the Electron app finished starting, according to the clip and Windows Latest’s account of it.
Was the newer client confirmed to be a cold start?
Yes. Discord audio and video lead Coral said both apps were launched from a cold start. The source does not provide independent testing of that claim, but Discord employees explicitly addressed the suggestion that the newer app had been opened from the system tray.
Does 290.2 MB prove the Rust client uses less RAM?
No. It is a single RAM-use snapshot from the new client running two accounts. The source does not give an equivalent reading for the Electron app under the same conditions, so the figure does not establish a measured percentage reduction.
What is Discord using instead of Electron?
The new Windows client uses Rust and GPUI, a GPU-accelerated interface framework created by the makers of the Zed code editor. Discord has not published a complete technical or performance comparison in the source material.
When will the Rust client be released?
The source material gives no public release date. It describes the client as an early build, so wider availability and the eventual replacement timeline remain unknown.
Source: windowslatest.com
