People need to be able to use alternate clients

Comments

38 comments

  • cactus.skeptic

    Second to what Caleb said. Screw Electron. I want native apps that have been built from the ground up with full adherence to Apple, Microsoft, and Google's design guidelines and APIs.

     

    25
  • codic

    Exactly. I'd really like a nice, native Linux client written in GTK or Qt without the overhead of Electron. It would eliminate the need for things like BetterDiscord

    25
  • DrFrankenstein90

    This would really be useful. While the official client works decently, it also uses up 400 MB of memory while sitting idle, versus (currently-unsupported) alternatives that only use 33 MB in some cases.

    With every developer and their neighbour going toward Electron and Web-based UIs these days (there are several such apps running on my machine right now, taking up about half my memory for no good reason), I think there's a market for lightweight clients and alternate user experiences, especially for those who want to run the app in parallel with their games without taking away precious memory and CPU time from the game.

    25
  • Caleb
    Yep. I want a nice, native macOS and iOS app that doesn't have the store or Nitro bloat. Just me, text and voice chat, my servers channels, members, and maybe a few other things.
    21
  • codic

    Discord is meant for gaming, yeah. It should be light, so that it dosen't steal RAM

    18
  • Dhalucario

    Honestly, calling Discord performant while it's using electron is a joke.

    15
  • VividValkyrie

    Electron is a complete and utter joke. While a couple of third party discord clients do exist out there I'm terrified to use them because my account might get disabled (and in fact it actually DID once).

     

    Discord runs like total molasses even on my high end gaming PC with nothing else running and the devs refuse to even take notice of the fact that it's a bloated ugly mess.

    They need to either fix it or let us use alternatives to their crappy first party client

    13
  • Idontcare1232113

    I second this. I'd like to make my own client but not violate the TOS.

    12
  • Syai?

    hey discord dev. you use electron only to make your work easier on multi platform right ? i know you have too much people that work on gui. at least please allow third program client. you can ask them to give the source to you or closed api. but please your electron program have too much problem on computer that only pass with tiny margin to minimum requirement. it have a big disaster

    6
  • 1AndOnlyPika

    Would be cool to do that, Discord rn does use a lot of ram, its like having two chrome instances open, oh wait Discord is chromium based, and on windows it just has so many tasks open hogging up resources

    5
  • Snowsune

    Id really like to be able to use third party discord clients, especially for computers that have no or limited graphics. Being banned for using a third party client just seems so silly.

    5
  • stereolame

    I wholeheartedly agree with this but I get the feeling that they're never going to respond to this or do anything about it.  Way too many apps that I use regularly are based on Electron and I hate it.  I'm sorry but a music player (spotify), a chat client (discord, slack, Teams, Messenger), or a text editor (atom, VSCode) should not need 500MB each of memory.  Electron is garbage.

    4
  • Tim Torte

    Erkin Alp

    "(third party clients are currently forbidden (or rather, unsupported)"

    I'm pretty sure Discord is actively suspending accounts that are using the API for third party solutions.

    This is what they had to say on Twitter:

    https://twitter.com/discord/status/1229357198918197248

    "All 3rd party apps or client modifiers are against our ToS, and the use of them can result in your account >being disabled. I don't recommend using them."

     

    cordless, a popular cli Discord  client seized development due to raising reports of suspended accounts.

    https://github.com/Bios-Marcel/cordless

    This in my opinion is inexcusable. Not endorsing third party clients is one one thing but actively suspending accounts using those clients is on a whole another level of corporate evil. No were on their site they mention that the use of third party clients can get you banned.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    4
  • VividValkyrie

    @Codic

     

    Funny that you mention linux performance because you're actually kinda right. On Linux and from what I've used Mac OS, Discord actually runs mostly fine. However on Windows it runs like a dogs breakfast and I seriously have no idea why that's the case. It's ridiculous.

    As for Electron, it really depends. For some programs Electron is fine but I really don't think it should be used for a desktop client for chat software. Although it does in the end come down to discord's code being flat out terrible

    3
  • Dhalucario

    @EZ2ACTux @Codic I have to kind of disagree. I am running Fedora 31 and Discord keeps crashing for me. The speed is just as good as on windows but at some point it just memory leaks itself to death.

    3
  • System0x20

    We should start a petition to change this.

    Discord, please for the love of god

    Stop using Electron OR Specify a protocol that we can implement and make our own client OR stop banning people.

    My fully featured Java IDE, Eclipse, uses less ram while doing s*** than Discord's windows client idling. It's absolutely ridiculous. Note that Java SWT apps are not completely native imagine discord app using idk like mfc or qt or whatever

    3
  • PillburyDohBoy2

    Discord, where is your answer?

    I would love to be able to design my own client... But I also want to keep my account. So please.

    3
  • PillburyDohBoy2

    I'd pay for nitro if I got access to a better API even.

    3
  • SnoopSqueak

    If we use custom clients, they can't force features upon us. Notably, I keep getting a YouTube Premium "offer" that is effectively an advertisement and cannot be disabled. Banning custom clients is an entirely anti-user decision, users who want the illusion of security would be free to continue using the official client.

    Apparently "Any form of automation is against ToS", so if you use typing assistants or other accessibility features, you're probably technically breaking ToS. Blanket banning self bots is lazy and I fail to see how it helps anyone but Discord, since it gives them an excuse to terminate accounts if you want to use an ad-free client. Or a client with features that should be free, but they want you to pay for. Or... anything at all.

    I've been a Nitro user for almost a year now because I'm happy to pay reasonable prices for good service, but things like this frustrate me. Oh, well... Much like Skype, if Discord gets too lousy, something better will come along and everyone will switch.

    3
  • alx

    Yes, I completely agree that we should be able to use 3rd party clients. I also agree that discord runs well on linux as discord launches in a couple seconds on arch linux with i3 window manager. But on windows, discord takes forever to open. Discord should improve their client and also allow 3rd party clients

    2
  • PaulBags

    The windows client is an <expletives> nightmare. And web is no solution. Anything would be better at this point.

    2
  • Discord c'est pas ouf en vrai

    Welcome to the big techs' web! Where have to use a 500 MB bloated application if you want to keep contact with people. I actually got an older account deleted, quite possibly because of me using a custom client.

    For the techies : What's the point of Electron? GTK for example allows making cross-platform apps, with litterally JavaScript and CSS.

    2
  • Erkin Alp

    I'd pay for nitro if I got access to a better API even.

    You mean, a better API that does not exist in the first place. Because bots and human users mostly use the same API (there are a few differences, yet still).

    1
  • ElizabethCray

    Ideally this is how Discord should handle it:
    If you pay for Nitro: you're account is whitelisted for API access, just like a bot.
    Some things though: make that Token access rate-limited as well as maybe even not allowing it to make guild changes.

    1
  • Erkin Alp

    If you pay for Nitro: you're account is whitelisted for API access, just like a bot.

    The problem with that is then you would have to have a more accurate antispam (third party clients are currently forbidden (or rather, unsupported) due to high false positives in the antispam mechanism). If you already have a mechanism to reliably tell third party clients and spam bots apart, then it would make no sense to use a more inferior antispam for those who do not pay. Everyone benefits from a more accurate antispam.

    1
  • Erkin Alp

    They are not actively suspending people using third party clients, unlike what their marketing says. Instead, due to high false positive rate of their antispam detector detecting API use patterns that look close to their clients but involving spam, some accounts get provisionally suspended, and according to Jake Henry's comment on Hacker News, if this is genuinely not a spam bot, you can request your account to be reactivated. The good thing is they will have to properly accept third party clients soon, due to interoperability clauses of the Digital Market Act of EU (you can assure yourself that Discord will not subject non-EU residents to an inferior antispam while subjecting EU residents to a superior one).

    WhatsApp, unlike Discord, actively seeks out the users that use third party clients, and permanently (not provisionally as Discord does) bans the user and starts legal action against the client vendor. Discord has never gone that far and never will.

    1
  • Tim

    Discord has avoided the backlash of the recent Reddit / Apollo dramas by never allowing 3rd-party clients in the first place. In reality, Discord deserves the exact same treatment from the folks now boycotting Reddit. What's really unfortunate for the Discord community is that an Apollo-style Discord client (even if only text-based without voice features) would look and feel amazing on iOS and MacOS. I have a tiny bit of experience with iOS development and would be willing to build one myself. The default client is bloated and awful.

    1
  • ikey.2

    Would be amazing. It is also asking Discord devs to be competent and stop relying on other peoples work... Not something they'll ever do.

    0
  • arydev

    yes is a good idea but i dont think discord will do that because it is proprietary

     

    0
  • JDJG

    discord uses chromium as it's base for the windows version and most PC versions , chrome itself in order not to crash it is better heavy maybe discord should try to make more of their own app rather than rely on chrome. but still give details that chrome gives.

    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.