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Discord executives shared a cold-start video in which the company’s new Rust-based Windows client loaded its friends list before the existing Electron app finished starting. Discord’s CTO also reported 290.2MB of RAM use with two accounts signed in, but the figure comes from an early build and is not a published comparison under controlled conditions.
Discord’s new Rust-based Windows client loaded its friends list before the company’s current Electron app finished starting in a video shared by co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy. Discord employees said both clients were launched from a cold start; Vishnevskiy also reported 290.2MB of RAM use while two accounts were signed in, though the company has not published a controlled, like-for-like benchmark.
The clip, shared by Vishnevskiy and Discord’s official account, shows the existing client opening first on one Windows 11 laptop. It displays a blank window and then a startup tip. The Rust client is opened about a second and a half later and its window appears in roughly a second. By the time the Electron app reaches its interface, the Rust version has loaded the friends list. Windows Latest reported that the video had 2.3 million views when its article was written; that figure is a time-specific view count, not a performance measure.
Discord staff disputed the suggestion that the faster launch came from reopening a client that was already running in the system tray. Coral, who leads audio and video at Discord, said both launches were cold starts. Discord social and community staffer Travis, who filmed the clip, said the friends list would already have loaded if the app had been launched from the tray. These are employee statements about the demonstration; the clip itself shows the two launches but does not establish performance across different computers or conditions.
Vishnevskiy said the 290.2MB reading reflected two accounts running concurrently in the new app. He joked that avatar decorations had to be rendered, then confirmed the client supports keeping multiple accounts active at once. Discord has not released a matched memory test comparing the old and new clients on the same machine, with the same accounts and workload. The reading is a snapshot from an early build, not a general measure of typical use.
Discord’s Rebuild Targets Startup and Memory
The demonstration gives Windows users a concrete example of why a desktop app might move away from Electron: startup time and memory use affect how quickly an app is ready and how much capacity remains for other programs. Discord’s existing client is widely used, and its performance may matter especially to people who keep it open alongside games or other demanding software. The clip suggests the new architecture can feel faster in one launch comparison, while the reported memory figure is notable because it includes two active accounts.
It does not establish that every Windows 11 app should replace Electron. App performance depends on its features, implementation, hardware and workload, and a rebuild has costs of its own. Discord’s result is a company demonstration of its own product, not an independent test or evidence that other Electron apps would see the same gains. For users, the practical question will be whether those benefits hold in regular use without sacrificing features, stability or compatibility.
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From Electron to Discord’s GPUI
Discord’s current desktop app is built with Electron, which uses Chromium and Node.js to run web technologies as a desktop application. The company’s new client uses Rust and GPUI, a GPU-accelerated interface framework developed by the makers of the Zed code editor. Discord has used Rust since 2018, according to the report. The new interface is not based on HTML, unlike a Tauri app, which can use Rust for application logic while rendering an HTML, CSS and JavaScript interface in the operating system’s webview.
The startup change also affects what users see: Discord says the new client updates in the background and does not need the existing app’s “Starting” screen. Coral said the client bootstraps quickly and uses a new architecture, and confirmed that it does not currently hand updates to the Microsoft Store or Windows Update Orchestration Platform. Discord has also worked on improving the existing app: its September patch notes said an Electron 42 upgrade lowered median CPU use by about 17%, alongside an approximately 4% rise in p50 memory usage. Those patch-note figures describe a change to the old client, not a direct comparison with the Rust build.
“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
What the Demo Cannot Establish
The video does not show a controlled comparison across repeated runs, machines or network conditions. The two ThinkPads appear to be recent models, but a single demonstration cannot establish typical startup times or memory use for all users. Discord has not published a like-for-like benchmark of the Electron and Rust clients, and the 290.2MB figure is an early-build snapshot with two accounts signed in. It is not clear how the new client’s usage changes over longer sessions, with different features active, or across a broader range of hardware.
Discord has not provided a public release schedule in the supplied report. It also remains unclear which features may be missing from the early client, how the rollout will work, or whether the new architecture will produce comparable gains on other operating systems. The company’s statements and the video support that this build launched quickly in the demonstration; they do not prove Electron apps as a category are inherently unsuitable for Windows.
Awaiting Tests and Release Details
The next useful evidence will be hands-on testing of the Rust client against the existing app under the same conditions, including repeated cold starts, idle memory readings and comparable account activity. Windows Latest said it plans to test the new version when it gets access. Discord has not, in the material cited here, announced when the client will be broadly available or given a public benchmark methodology.
For now, users should treat the clip as an early look at Discord’s direction rather than a guarantee of a specific performance improvement on their own PCs. Further details about availability, feature coverage, update behavior and measured performance would clarify how much of the demonstration carries over to everyday use.
Key Questions
What did Discord’s video show?
It showed the new Rust client loading its friends list before the existing Electron client finished starting on Windows 11. Discord employees said both apps were launched from a cold start.
How much RAM did the new client use?
Discord CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy reported 290.2MB while two accounts were signed in. That is an early-build snapshot, not a published benchmark of typical use.
Is Discord replacing Electron with Tauri?
No. The report says Discord’s new desktop client uses Rust and GPUI, a GPU-accelerated interface framework. Tauri was discussed as an alternative but is not the framework used for this client.
Has Discord proved the Rust client is faster for all users?
No. The video shows one comparison, and Discord has not published a controlled, like-for-like test. Results may differ by hardware, workload and software version.
When will the Rust client be available to everyone?
The source material does not give a public release date or rollout schedule. Discord’s broader availability plans remain unclear.
Source: windowslatest.com
