discordMay 1, 2025

Discord Patch Notes: May 1, 2025 (opens in new tab)

Discord’s May 1, 2025 patch focuses on performance, usability, reliability, and bug fixes across platforms. Notable changes include faster Android video uploads, improved animated emoji support, and new Markdown links for phone numbers and email addresses. The release also resolves a wide range of interface, profile, moderation, permissions, and mobile issues, though some fixes may still be rolling out. ## Performance and Media Improvements - Android video transcoding improvements increased average upload speeds by about 5.6%. - Lower-performance Android devices saw average upload times improve by roughly 10.5%. - Animated emojis can now be uploaded in WebP and AVIF formats. - Supports true alpha transparency. - Provides greater color depth. - Produces smaller files. - Enables smoother playback. ## Markdown Links for Contact Information - Phone numbers and email addresses can now be formatted as links by placing them inside angle brackets: `< >`. - This allows users to tap or interact with contact information directly instead of copying it into another app. ## Notifications, Search, and Forum Usability - macOS notifications were redesigned to be cleaner and less cluttered. - Tapping text enclosed in backticks now copies it on mobile. - Forum searches now support choosing between AND and OR behavior for multiple tags. - Emoji autocomplete was improved for narrow Discord windows. - AutoMod system direct messages now appear correctly in mobile search results. - Server Insights graphs now update with the latest engagement data. - Keyboard behavior was improved when layout changes obscure content, particularly in Forum Channels; further improvements are ongoing. ## Profiles, Friends, and Statuses - Friend-request context menus now say “Accept Friend Request” instead of “Add Friend.” - Friend-request settings were reworded for greater clarity. - Mutual servers now appear correctly in mini profiles and update without requiring a restart. - Custom emojis in statuses animate properly when combined with text. - Non-animated custom-status emojis now display hover tooltips. - System emojis no longer appear clipped in Android statuses. - The Settings label “User Profile” was renamed “Main Profile.” - Accidental status changes from the Nitro preview in profile settings are no longer possible. - Long role lists in profiles can now be scrolled. - Server-specific profile role padding and role color previews were corrected. ## Moderation, Roles, and Server Management - Clicking a member in the Members tab now opens Mod View instead of closing the tab. - Mod View correctly renders messages from age-restricted channels. - Role color changes and slightly edited AutoMod regex rules now save properly. - Roles in Advanced View channel permissions are sorted by hierarchy. - Community Onboarding tasks can now be deleted reliably. - The “More” button on Student Hub server cards now works. - Users can once again move servers into the first position in a folder. - The server member-list border on iOS was reduced to restore usable space. ## Emoji, Reactions, and Embeds - Animated emojis now animate correctly in the full reactions list. - Reaction hover text is properly formatted even when many users participated. - Desktop now displays a clear upload-result toast for GIF emojis. - Invite links ending in a period now embed correctly. - Embeds and bot messages scale more effectively with font sizes and image dimensions, reducing overly narrow layouts. ## Mobile, Platform, and Visual Fixes - Quest and Account panels now align correctly. - Text in Voice for Stage Channels renders properly on foldable devices. - Mobile server headers use consistent colors across non-standard themes. - macOS capitalization for “Quit Discord” was corrected. - A Russian translation error affecting the “Mention the User” button was fixed. - Discovery now shows only one error when a user has reached the server limit. - Android users can side-scroll through server invite options. - Profile reaction coachmarks are positioned correctly. Discord recommends reporting remaining issues through the community bug megathread. Users who want early access to iOS changes can also join the Discord TestFlight program.

webpdiscordandroidios+4

discordMar 16, 2025

Modern Image Formats at Discord: Supporting WebP and AVIF (opens in new tab)

Discord modernized its image pipeline to support animated WebP and AVIF attachments, embeds, and emojis. The change improves animation quality while significantly reducing file sizes compared with GIFs. Discord chose WebP as its primary delivery format because it offers broader platform support and more predictable performance, while converting AVIF sources—including tone-mapping HDR images to SDR when necessary. ## Benefits of WebP and AVIF - **Better transparency:** Both formats support full alpha channels, allowing smooth edges and animations that blend naturally with Discord’s light and dark themes. - **Greater color depth:** - GIF supports only 256 colors. - WebP supports roughly 16 million colors through 8-bit color channels. - AVIF supports up to 12 bits per channel. - **Improved visual quality:** Higher color fidelity reduces banding, produces more accurate colors, and better supports photographic and HDR content. - **Smaller animations:** Modern video-style compression provides: - Inter-frame compression - Advanced prediction - Configurable quality levels - Millisecond-precise frame timing - In the example provided, a GIF was **302 KB**, while the equivalent WebP animation was **43 KB**. ## Cross-Platform Image Processing - Discord processes and resizes every attached or embedded image to provide consistent behavior across: - Web browsers - Windows, macOS, and Linux - iOS - Android - Supporting new formats required coordinating inspection, conversion, decoding, and rendering throughout the media infrastructure. - Discord selected WebP as its preferred transformation target because it offers: - Near-universal platform support - Faster encoding and decoding than AVIF - Mature tools and ecosystem support - More predictable performance ## Tradeoffs Between WebP and AVIF - WebP is less capable than AVIF for: - 10- or 12-bit color - HDR content - Maximum compression efficiency - AVIF can produce smaller files for some content, but its platform support and performance are less consistent. - Discord converts AVIF images to WebP while preserving as much visual quality as possible. - HDR AVIF sources are tone-mapped to SDR because WebP is limited to 8-bit color depth. ## iOS Decoding Challenges - Discord uses SDWebImage to render images on iOS. - Its default WebP implementation relies on Apple’s ImageIO framework, available in iOS 14 and later. - Testing revealed that ImageIO decoded animated WebP files with increasingly inconsistent timing, especially for large or frame-heavy animations. - In a 10-second 480p30 comparison: - `libwebp` decoded the animation in real time. - ImageIO fell more than three seconds behind, with the delay increasing throughout playback. Discord’s move to WebP and AVIF demonstrates how modern formats can deliver higher-quality animations with substantially smaller files. For broad compatibility and reliable playback, WebP serves as the practical default, while AVIF remains useful as a high-efficiency source format.

webpiosimage-processingavif+4

discordMar 6, 2025

Supercharging Discord Mobile: Our Journey to a Faster App (opens in new tab)

Discord’s mobile performance work focuses on making power-user workflows faster and more reliable, especially on lower-end Android devices. The team improved memory usage and frame rates through virtualization, native UI optimizations, recycling, and better media formats. When React Native could not meet performance needs, Discord chose targeted native implementations despite the added maintenance burden. ## React Native and Performance Priorities - Discord uses React for desktop and React Native for mobile. - Android moved to React Native in 2022 after improvements in device capabilities and the Hermes JavaScript engine. - The transition initially affected startup performance, but median startup times were cut in half during 2023. - Recent work targets heavily used features and users with large servers, busy chats, and extensive emoji collections. ## Virtualized Server List - The old server list kept every server view and icon—including animated icons—in memory. - The rewritten virtualized list retains only information for servers currently visible on screen. - The change also enabled improved drag-and-drop animations. - Users with more than 100 servers saw: - 14% lower startup memory usage - 10% faster overall startup time ## Native Chat Performance Improvements - Discord profiled its already-native chat list and found opportunities to improve loading, scrolling, and memory use. - Application Components and Media Mosaics now use recycling mechanisms. - Infrequently used elements, including spoilers and upload overlays, are loaded lazily. - Message containers and reactions were made faster to measure. - Recycling pools are pre-filled with common chat elements before a chat is opened. - Results included up to 60% fewer slow frames and approximately 12% lower chat-list memory usage. ## Rebuilding the Android Emoji Picker - Large servers can provide hundreds of custom emojis, many of them animated. - The previous React Native picker produced blank frames—and sometimes crashes—on budget Android devices during rapid scrolling. - Discord rebuilt the picker natively for Android rather than applying incremental optimizations. - Stress tests involving emojis from 200 servers eliminated blank frames and delivered smooth scrolling on low-end hardware. - Discord accepted the cost of maintaining separate Android and iOS implementations, while planning to reassess the decision with React Native’s New Architecture. ## Animated WebP Emojis - Discord’s media proxy added animated WebP support. - Replacing GIFs with WebP enabled animated emojis to render at up to 60 frames per second on low-end devices. - The team plans to publish more details about its animated-image improvements. ## Eliminating ChannelList Blanking - Discord initially replaced its homegrown React Native FastList with Shopify’s FlashList. - FlashList simplified development because components did not require precisely accurate dimensions. - In practice, FlashList blanked more frequently on low-end Android devices. - Discord restored and refactored FastList, eliminating blanking even on a $50 phone. Discord’s approach combines broad React Native development with native solutions where performance is critical. Virtualization, recycling, lazy loading, and efficient image formats provide general improvements, while platform-specific rewrites remain justified for demanding experiences such as emoji browsing.

webpandroidjavascriptreact-native+4

discordFeb 27, 2025

Discord Patch Notes: December 5, 2024 (opens in new tab)

Discord’s December 5, 2024 patch focuses on performance improvements, mobile design updates, compatibility, and bug fixes across the platform. Major changes include refreshed mobile profiles, a 90%+ faster iOS Media Picker, Unicode 15.1 emoji support, animated WebP embeds, and Webhook Events for apps. Discord noted that updates may still be rolling out and that Patch Notes would pause until early February. ## Major Product and Platform Updates - Mobile user profiles, including profile editing, were redesigned to more closely match the desktop experience. - The iOS Media Picker now loads images over 90% faster in most cases, with significantly less blank UI while content loads. - Unicode 15.1 emoji are supported; users may see placeholder or inconsistent emoji until they update their clients. - Desktop and web apps now support animated WebP content in embeds and favorites. - Animated emojis are requested in WebP instead of GIF to improve performance. - Webhook Events allow apps to receive events without maintaining gateway connections, which is useful for apps that do not require low latency. ## General Fixes and Usability Improvements - Bluesky URLs now receive proper embed support. - Fixed profile banner cropping, profile button rendering, shortened URL unfurling, streaming activity titles, and role-name display issues. - Mobile profile notification dots, Android button icons, localization, Nitro gifting themes, and server profile menus received various fixes. - Blocking a user from their profile now requires confirmation. - Adding roles through “Add Members” is capped at 30 users to prevent silent failures. - Fixed notification content, share-screen layout, poll-result indicators, and channel permission prompts. - Android incoming call notifications now show display names instead of usernames. ## Chat and Messaging - Message drafts now remain associated with the correct DM instead of moving between DM notifications. - Fixed emoji autocomplete in full-screen Text in Voice, user mentions displaying IDs, and iOS handling of text following an “@” symbol. - Thread creation, attachment layouts, typing indicators, chat input spacing, onboarding bars, and message forwarding themes were corrected. - Fixed unread mention indicators affecting surrounding background colors. - On iOS, opening certain threads no longer incorrectly navigates to the thread creator’s profile. ## Activities and Apps - Fixed username rendering problems in Activities on some servers. - App authorization widgets no longer incorrectly ask users to scroll when no scrollbar is present. ## Audio and Video - Corrected missing circular backgrounds on voice controls and sizing problems with Activity buttons in calls. - Switching between Push to Talk and Voice Activity now reliably reactivates Voice Activity. - Fixed Android microphone failures when sharing another application. - Resolved an iOS screen-sharing failure affecting app version 253; updating is required for affected users. - Fixed the mobile post-call feedback dialog and adjusted call-status icon styling. - On iOS speaker mode, the proximity sensor should no longer turn off the screen unexpectedly during calls.

webpdiscordandroidios+4

discordFeb 26, 2025

Discord Patch Notes: October 1, 2024 (opens in new tab)

Discord’s October 1, 2024 patch focuses on mobile performance, storage efficiency, usability improvements, and broad bug fixes. Android users should see smoother chat rendering and lower resource usage, while iOS users may benefit from substantially reduced data storage. The update also introduces desktop Soundboard improvements, macOS screen-sharing refinements, and Animated WebP support. ## Mobile Performance and Storage - Android chat rendering improvements reduced slow frames by up to 60%, depending on the device. - Android chat-list memory usage fell by approximately 12%, making scrolling through message histories smoother. - Mobile server-list virtualization keeps only visible servers loaded: - Memory usage improved by 14% for users in many servers. - CPU usage improved by 25%. - Mobile unread indicators now consistently appear above the correct message, even with many unread messages. - iOS data-store changes reduced storage usage for the most affected 1% of users from 5.7 GB to 1.7 GB. - Fixed iOS message search results beyond the first page and crashes involving certain NFC hardware keys. - Resolved tablet orientation-detection issues and several Android problems involving read states and mobile keyboards. ## New Features and Interface Updates - macOS screen-sharing startup now has a more consistent and streamlined interface. - Desktop received a redesigned Soundboard interface for easier sound navigation and interaction. - Web and desktop clients can now play Animated WebP attachments, offering smoother playback and potentially lower bandwidth usage. - Electron was upgraded to version 32, with expected incremental performance and crash-reduction benefits. - Pasting a URL over an existing link now properly replaces the original URL instead of creating unexpected Markdown behavior. - Activity Status now correctly displays PS5 games. - The green acceptance check mark has returned to friend-request notifications. ## Interface and Navigation Fixes - Corrected visual issues involving emoji pickers, GIF categories, profile status bubbles, avatar decorations, fonts, borders, and themed search filters. - Fixed navigation problems in GIF categories, the Shop, Friends UI, mutual-friend lists, and profile popouts. - Improved accessibility and navigation indicators so they are no longer cut off in several profile and list views. - Corrected layout issues in Student Hub, channel settings, server settings, Notification Center, and message requests. - Fixed Quests links, Server Guide icons, role expansion behavior, and the display of permission descriptions on mobile. - Restored functionality for the Toggle Overlay hotkey after switching applications with Alt-Tab. - Corrected several modal and popup layering issues, including stickers, Soundboard uploads, and quest cards. ## Reliability and Content Fixes - Fixed crashes when viewing deleted channels in Audit Log with ModView open. - Corrected poll countdown text as polls approach closure. - Member verification and rules-agreement indicators now reflect the correct state. - Fixed incorrect game-presence names appearing in Japanese. - Resolved issues with rate-limited or frozen GIF categories. - Corrected timeout duration display in moderation views. - Fixed profile customizations failing to load on the first Shop attempt. ## Chat Improvements - Fixed mobile chat layout issues, including the missing “Jump to Bottom” button and overlapping composer elements. - Android web embeds now scale correctly instead of cutting off image content. - Corrected message-height calculations and action-sheet handle placement. - Prevented Avatar Decorations from being clipped at the top of chat. Discord’s update is primarily a reliability and performance release. Users—especially those on Android, iOS, or with many servers—should benefit from smoother navigation, lower resource consumption, and fewer interface defects as the changes roll out across platforms.

webpandroidiosmarkdown+4

discordFeb 26, 2025

Discord Update: December 19, 2024 Changelog (opens in new tab)

Discord’s December 19, 2024 changelog recaps the year’s most useful performance and reliability improvements through a festive poem. The updates focused on making mobile apps more stable and responsive, speeding up servers, GIFs, chat, and APIs, and improving image quality and storage usage. Discord concludes by encouraging users to join voice, play games, or Go Live, while promoting Nitro gifting. ## Mobile Stability and Performance - iOS crash fixes reduced the overall crash rate by **84%**. - Android’s chat renderer reduced slow frames by up to **60%** and lowered chat-list memory usage by about **12%**. - The Android Expression Picker—covering emojis, GIFs, and stickers—saw up to **50% fewer dropped frames** and approximately **7.5% lower memory usage**. - Foldable-device support and multitasking were significantly improved. - Mobile server lists were virtualized so only visible servers remain loaded, improving scrolling performance. - Server switching on Android and iOS became more than **30% faster**. - Mobile GIF Picker loading times improved by up to **80%**. ## Backend and Media Improvements - Infrastructure changes, including moving to Google Cloud C3 instances and removing an Nginx layer, reduced p90+ API latency by roughly **25%**. - Discord’s media proxy now preserves ICC color-profile data when resizing images into WebP, improving color accuracy across platforms. - iOS data-storage changes reduced disk usage substantially; the most affected 1% of users went from approximately **5.7 GB to 1.7 GB**, with some users recovering up to **4 GB**. ## Seasonal Extras - The recap is presented as a “Fixmas” poem summarizing fixes from Discord’s 2024 Patch Notes. - Users who gift Nitro during the promotion also receive an Avatar Decoration. Together, these changes show Discord’s emphasis on incremental improvements that make everyday communication faster, more reliable, and less demanding on mobile devices.

webpandroidiosapi+4