Discord fixes bug that caused app to take upwards of two whole minutes to launch
Discord may have postponed its global rollout of age verification checks, but the chat platform can't seem to stop putting its foot in its mouth. Case in point, Discord just fixed a bug that could cause the app to take forever to launch on certain devices.
The issue has only been documented on iOS so far, with Discord Engineering admitting in last week's patch notes that it could lead to "the app [taking] upwards of t w o m i n u t e s [sic] to launch following a full device restart." And there I was thinking the never-ending grey launch dialogue was a special hell just for me.
It sounds like the iOS bug was most commonly encountered on mobile devices. Discord explains, "We accidentally had an asset request on the background queue, which gets quite flooded while phones are booting up. Whooooooops."
Speaking of snail-paced problems, a small portion of Discord users reported last month that they were experiencing frame time spikes in competitive shooters like Counter-Strike 2 while they had the app running. This particular issue doesn't get a look-in on the latest patch notes, and Nick couldn't replicate it during his testing either.
That aside, I'm all for major platforms being upfront about their mistakes—but I could personally take or leave the meme-y tone of these patch notes. For instance, Discord documents another bug also encountered on mobile by writing, "[The bug] could cause element animations (like transitioning in and out of chat) to get stuck mid-animation. DOOR STUCK!!!"
Way to make me feel ancient, guys. At the very least, this tone doesn't pervade the entirety of the patch notes, and Discord dropped the whole quirky writing style for its most recent Policy & Safety blog post regarding age assurance checks.
Age verification on Discord is still set to roll out globally during "the second half of 2026," though the UK, where I'm based, has had them since last year following the introduction of the Online Safety Act. Discord CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy wrote, "Where we have legal obligations, we will continue to meet them."