Discord's Rust client uses 70% less RAM than Electron
Original: Every Windows 11 app should kill Electron, and Discord just showed why
Why This Matters
Proves native rewrites can cut memory and load times dramatically at scale.
Discord's new Rust-based client loads a friends list before the current Electron app clears its loading screen in a cold-start test, using only 290.2MB RAM with two accounts signed in simultaneously.
A 15-second video posted by Discord co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy on X racked up 2.3 million views, showing the company's upcoming Rust-built client—internally called Discord Phoenix—launching side by side against the existing Electron app on two Lenovo ThinkPads running Windows 11. Both were confirmed cold starts by Discord employees.
Frame-by-frame analysis tells the story clearly. The Electron client was opened first, sat on a blank dark window for about three seconds, then displayed a loading tip before eventually reaching its interface around the five-second mark. The Rust client was double-clicked roughly 1.5 seconds later and was already showing a loaded friends list by the time Electron finished rendering its UI.
RAM numbers are equally stark. The Rust client consumed 290.2MB with two accounts active—a figure Discord's CTO called just part of the story. 'Clicking around feels instant, I can't go back,' Vishnevskiy wrote. Discord audio/video lead Coral confirmed the cold-start claim directly, noting internally the app feels so fast that testers assumed it had never been closed. The Electron app, as the loading tip ironically noted, still ships a full browser engine—a legacy of Discord's browser-only origins.