Android users are getting a huge update in the coming weeks that promises to vastly improve the entire experience and bring it in line with its iOS counterpart. How are they doing this? Discord is switching to the open-source React Native UI software for the Android app, which allows them to make any fixes or roll out new updates simultaneously across every platform. In other words, running Discord on an Android device won’t seem “weird” or “off,” as it will mirror the experience of using it on any other platform. Before this point, new features and fixes would take months to finally arrive on Android. “Historically, work on the Android implementation of new features would often be delayed until desktop and iOS were completed, resulting in some features that launched first on one platform before eventually arriving on another one,” write the Discord product team. The update not only speeds up fixes and the release of new features but also creates visual parity, with the same fonts and font sizes across all platforms. Existing users can opt-out of the aesthetic changes if they’re already comfortable with the UI. Discord has already started rolling out this update to Android users, but it will be a few weeks before it reaches every subscriber.
