Introducing DisCorkie – A Multi-Instance Discourse Client

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Hi Discourse Meta,

If you’re active in more than one Discourse forum, you’ve probably wished for a faster, cleaner way to stay connected. That’s exactly what I’m building with DisCorkie – a modern Discourse client that lets you access multiple forums from one app, with a native experience across platforms.

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What is DisCorkie?

DisCorkie helps you manage several Discourse communities in one place. No more juggling browser tabs or switching accounts manually. It’s built for users who want a focused, streamlined way to browse and interact with the forums they care about.

I’m actively developing DisCorkie and am always open to hearing ideas or suggestions from the community to help guide its future.

Features

  • Multi-forum support: Connect to and switch between multiple Discourse communities seamlessly.
  • Forum discovery: Explore public forums by topic or language.
  • Native Experience: Built using Compose Multiplatform for a fast, responsive UI.
  • Cross-platform: Consistent experience across mobile and desktop.

Explore new forums, Stay connected
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Download DisCorkie

DisCorkie is currently available for Android, Linux, and Windows.

Windows (New!)

We have officially moved to the Microsoft Store! This ensures you always receive the latest features and security patches automatically.

  • Get it on the Microsoft Store
    • Note: Support for the standalone MSI (GitHub) has been discontinued to prioritize the auto-update capabilities of the Store version.

Android

Linux

Apple Ecosystem

  • macOS and iOS versions are coming soon.

Development Updates

I publish regular updates regarding the app’s development, new features, and changelogs on my blog:

Feedback welcome

Thanks for checking out DisCorkie! I am open to all kinds of feedback, whether it’s feature requests, bug reports, or general thoughts on the user experience. Please reply below—I’m listening and continuously improving the app based on user input.

Pricing Note: DisCorkie is a commercial app with a free tier. The subscription price is kept symbolic, intended simply to help sustain and cover the costs of development.

Disclaimer: DisCorkie is a third-party client and is not directly affiliated with Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.

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Dropping iOS 15 & other old browsers in July 2025
Is it possible to convert a forum into a real app?
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Does it apply its own theme on all the instances or will custom theming remain after switching to an instance?

What were the use cases that led you to make this? My way of solving the problem was using PWAs (have each one on my desktop – both Mac and iPhone) and so the switching works on the OS level easily.

What is the difference to the discourse-hub?

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Does it apply its own theme on all the instances or will custom theming remain after switching to an instance?

The application theme respects the discourse instance theming. We use the information provided by the API to calculate what would be the best color for the theme that still respects the design system we are adopting. This is the result:

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What were the use cases that led you to make this?

Basically the same use cases that led to the creation of the Discourse Hub. However, I’m extending this concept also for Desktop applications

What is the difference to the discourse-hub?

User experience
DisCorkie UI based on Skia(KMP) That give use several benefits when compared with the regular UI in HTML,CSS and JS: Performance, UI Consistency regardless the operating system or browser version, Smoother animations and transitions

Overal performance
Due to the fact DisCorkie does not use Javascript or HTML we can benefit from this architecture:

  • More robust multithreading support: Used to boost application performance due to parallel processing
  • The application does not need to load any HTML, CSS or JS file from the network. We only need the JSON payload. Less files to download, which makes it better for use in an unstable internet connection environment.
  • These reasons associated with caching make the app very resource-light

Comparison
This is the current Discourse Hub experience on an Android device.


The app opens the forum on the browser. So basically it works like a shortcut

This is how the DisCorkie app looks like on an Android Device


This looks way more like an app for me

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Dropping iOS 15 & other old browsers in July 2025
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I didn’t get the chance to test (or even understand some technical details of) your solution yet, but just focusing on:

This is the behavior only on Android, and to be honest I feel like we could revisit this decision. Maybe the idea is that if you already have it installed as a PWA, it’ll open that instead, but the experience on iOS is so much better that I wonder if we shouldn’t go the same route on Android. /cc @pmusaraj

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Could you elaborate on how it works on iOS?

On Android, a link will load the PWA if installed. Isn’t that optimal?

(we’re getting off Topic here?)

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I’m not sure. The user would have to “install” two applications. It’s one step more that could be avoided.

And yeah, we are a bit off topic haha. Maybe it would be nice to have a separate discussion for that.

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Do I flag this as offtopic, or will you do it :joy:

One big difference between the Hub and PWA on iOS is I can close easily a forum when needed reloading, for example ^[yes, we have a component for reloading, but it isn’t official and not totally 100% reliable]. PWA must be closed using OS-way. And I get urls much easily (not easily, but it is doable) from the Hub. Getting links from PWA is impossible — well, there was now two differences.

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Looks really slick! Especially that subtle theming :chefs_kiss: . Something like this would be great for power-users who manage multiple communities on desktop (like a TweetDeck), so might be worth putting a focus on centralized moderation/admin capabilities.

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Thank you! That’s a really good suggestion! I will consider that for the next updates

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Im adding here the application landing page. It is quite simple but brings some other details about the app

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Quick update!
The Android version of DisCorkie is now live on the Google Play Store :tada:
Anyone can download it and start exploring their favorite forums right from their phone.

I know there are still a few features missing but I’m actively working on improving it and shipping new updates as soon as they’re ready. Your feedback is always welcome! :blush:

Thanks again to everyone who’s followed the journey so far.

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Maybe I’m missing something, but after adding two forums all abilities to add a third one become greyed out, both the “add forum” on the left as well as “manage forums” –> “discover new communities”.

Removing one of the two forums enables the button again.

(I’m also unable to remove all forums but obviously that’s not a problem).

1.1.6 build 35 on Windows 11.

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I have 4 on Android but think it allowed me maybe on initial setup. Otherwise I have the same issue no option available to add more.

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You’re not missing anything — the current version limits the number of forums. I’m planning to introduce support for adding more as part of DisCorkie Plus, the upcoming premium tier. That said, everyone who joined the early testing phase will get access to all premium features, including this one, once it’s available.

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It would have been nice if it would have said so, since I spent half an hour on trying to figure out what was wrong.

You’ve also asked me and other members of the community to beta test something that turns out to be closed-source and paid. No problem but I would have liked to have known this upfront.

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Thanks for your honest feedback and I truly apologize for the confusion and frustration this caused.

It was never my intention to mislead or hide anything from the community. I genuinely appreciate the time and effort you’ve put into testing DisCorkie, and I understand how it must have felt running into that limitation without a clear explanation.

You’re absolutely right that this should have been communicated more clearly from the start, and I’ll make sure to improve how these things are shared moving forward.

As for the paid tier — yes, DisCorkie is closed-source, and I’ve been exploring a small subscription (likely around 1.3 to 1.5 euros/month) as a way to help support ongoing development and cover costs. The app started as a passion project, but it’s grown to the point where sustainability became a consideration. That said, feedback like yours really helps shape how I approach things.

I genuinely value your opinion and would love to hear what you think about the pricing and overall direction. Thanks again for speaking up — I’m listening and learning.

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:+1: Consider updating the original post to clarify things like this as you get more feedback.

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I updated it earlier today. I hope it is clearer now.

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Being the Solo DeV it can be easy to miss a few details. As you said honest feedback is great as it helps not only to find bugs, requested features but also gaps.

Thank you for creating a cool ap. Still early days but you have a great start and progress you have is quite decent.

Working with a company that makes VR headset there big weakness is making half decent release notes. Often they tell you after you identify a bug that it was known.

Worst release notes they had on one version said it improves your Amazon experience. :joy:

There after 7 years are finally doing much better and unlike yourself have a team working on their software.