Windows on Arm has been gaining momentum in recent times, at least in terms of developer support. Recently, Proton Drive, Google Drive, Fortnite, Signal, Telegram, Proton VPN, Arc Browser, and hundreds of other apps announced native support for Windows on Arm. Now, yet another app is ready to join this lengthy list, as Discord has confirmed that a native client is in development for Windows on Arm.
Discord has confirmed to The Verge that an early version of the app for Windows on Arm is currently in development. This is big news for customers who use that Windows flavor as the existing version of the app is considerably slow, which is not surprising, as it is an emulated experience. This is not a jab against emulation, as many apps have no issue while running on an emulation layer, but Discord is a fairly complex app and just doesn"t run well on Windows on Arm. Since it"s an app for online communication where you may be talking to a dozen people simultaneously, performance is paramount. As such, it makes sense that Discord is considering a native Windows on Arm version that is not held back by performance issues.
The Verge"s Tom Warren tested an early version of this upcoming Discord app and found it to be identical to the Intel version in terms of performance. Unfortunately, it"s not yet known when this app will hit general availability, though, since it seems to be fairly early on in development.
Discord is heavily used by the gaming community. The company recently introduced a fresh overlay for PC, offering better game support and performance. Although Windows on Arm is likely not a platform that is particularly popular among gamers, the upcoming native version will probably please other customer segments that use Discord for online communication.