Discord is rewriting one of the most-used chat clients on Windows, and the early memory numbers look promising. The company is rebuilding its desktop application in Rust, abandoning the Electron framework and React Native that have powered its clients for years, according to reporting from Neowin. The stated goal is a much lighter client, and a leaked look at the in-memory footprint suggests it is delivering on that promise.
For years, the complaint from power users has been simple: the Discord desktop app eats RAM. That is about to change, at least in theory, as the company moves away from the web-technology stack that has defined it. Early screenshots of the new Discord Rust app show a dramatically slimmer memory profile compared with the usual suspects.
What’s changing in the Discord Rust app
The core of the rewrite is a shift in programming language and architecture. Discord is moving to Rust, a systems-level language prized for performance and memory safety, and stepping away from Electron and React Native. Electron wraps a web page inside a bundled Chromium browser, which is why so many modern desktop apps look and behave like browsers. React Native is Discord’s approach to its mobile clients.
The implication is that the next-generation desktop client will no longer be a web app in disguise. Instead, it is being built closer to the metal, which is exactly the kind of change that tends to reduce the amount of system memory an idle application holds onto.
It is worth noting that this reporting is based on what Neowin has surfaced, so the figures are not coming straight from an official Discord changelog. Treat the specifics as early signals rather than a finished product.
Why the old app ate so much RAM
To understand why this matters, it helps to understand what Electron actually does. Each Electron app launches its own separate instance of Chromium, the browser engine that also powers Google Chrome. That means the Discord desktop app carries a full browser engine in its pocket at all times, even when you are just reading messages.
That architecture is convenient for developers, since it lets them build cross-platform apps with web technologies. The trade-off is memory. When you have several Electron apps open at once, each one is holding onto its own Chromium instance, and the RAM adds up quickly. This is a well-known criticism of the Discord desktop client and many of its peers.
Rust sidesteps much of that overhead. It compiles down to native code and manages memory explicitly, without the extra browser layer or a garbage collector constantly reserving space. That is the technical reason the new build is expected to sit more lightly on your system.
How the new build compares
According to Neowin, a look at the new client’s memory usage shows it consuming far less RAM than Chrome, Steam, and Spotify. All three of those are familiar reference points for Windows users, and all three are known to be relatively hungry applications.
Chrome is the obvious memory hog, since each tab and extension can spawn its own process. Steam is a large, always-on storefront client. Spotify’s desktop app has historically been built on the same Electron technology as Discord, so it is a fair and relevant comparison. If the new Discord app genuinely sits below all three, that is a meaningful jump from where the current client typically lands.
Again, the exact figures have not been published by Discord itself, so the precise gap between the apps remains unverified. What is clear from the reporting is the direction of travel: a client that asks much less of your hardware.
What this means for you
For the average user on a modern machine with plenty of RAM, the difference may feel minor. But for anyone running a laptop on battery, a machine with 8GB of memory, or a setup where you keep Discord open alongside a game, a leaner client is a real, daily benefit.
In practice, this could mean more headroom for the game or program you actually care about, fewer forced closes when memory runs tight, and a small but noticeable improvement in multitasking smoothness. It also aligns Discord with a broader industry trend, as teams behind apps from editors to productivity tools increasingly abandon Electron in favor of Rust-based alternatives that run lighter and faster.
The catch is timing. This is a rebuild from the ground up, and there is no confirmed public release date. Until the app reaches stable, general availability, the memory numbers should be read as early signals rather than a guarantee.
How to get the new app
There is nothing to do today if you want to try the rewrite. Discord has not announced a public beta window or a rollout schedule for the Rust-based client, so the current desktop app remains the only official version to install.
If you want to keep an eye on it, the reliable path is Discord’s official channels and blog, where the company typically announces major client changes well before they ship. Until then, stick with the standard desktop download from Discord’s website, which will continue to receive its usual updates on the existing Electron stack.
One practical tip: if memory usage on your current Discord build ever feels excessive, closing and reopening the app, or switching to the web version in your browser, can temporarily relieve pressure. But the real fix is coming in the rewrite that is currently in development.
Source: Neowin
Over to you: Would a lighter Discord client make you keep it running in the background more often, or are you happy with the web version?
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