76: From C to Rust on Mobile
Meta Tech Podcast27 Juni 2025

76: From C to Rust on Mobile

What happens when decades-old C code, powering billions of daily messages, starts to slow down innovation? In this episode, we talk to Meta engineers Elaine and Buping, who are in the midst of a bold, incremental rewrite of one of our core messaging libraries—in Rust. Neither came into the project as Rust experts, but both saw a chance to improve not just performance, but developer experience across the board.

We dig into the technical and human sides of the project: why they took it on, how they're approaching it without a guaranteed finish line, and what it means to optimise for something as intangible (yet vital) as developer happiness. If you've ever wrestled with legacy code or wondered what it takes to modernise systems at massive scale, this one's for you.

Got feedback? Send it to us on Threads (https://threads.net/@metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don't forget to follow our host Pascal (https://mastodon.social/@passy, https://threads.net/@passy_). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.

Timestamps

  • Intro 0:06

  • Introduction Elaine 1:54

  • Introduction Buping 2:49

  • Team mission 3:15

  • Scale of messaging at Meta 3:40

  • State of native code on Mobile 4:40

  • Why C, not C++? 7:13

  • Challenges of working with C 10:09

  • State of Rust on Mobile 18:10

  • Why choose Rust? 23:36

  • Prior Rust experience 28:55

  • Learning Rust at Meta 34:14

  • Challenges of the migration 37:47

  • Measuring success 42:09

  • Hobbies 45:15

  • Outro 46:41

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(94)

BONUS: Send Us Your Questions About Engineering at Meta

BONUS: Send Us Your Questions About Engineering at Meta

Pascal is going on Recharge for August so there will be no regular interview episode. However, we want to hear your questions for our mailbag episode. Send them to us on Instagram (https://www.instagr...

29 Juli 1min

87: Everything is Power: Battery Life Engineering for AI Glasses

87: Everything is Power: Battery Life Engineering for AI Glasses

What changes for you as a developer when the device moves from your pocket to your face? The battery shrinks by an order of magnitude, the thermal budget is whatever won't make your nose uncomfortable...

13 Juli 41min

86: A Hard Cell: Engineering Ultra-Narrow Batteries for AI Glasses

86: A Hard Cell: Engineering Ultra-Narrow Batteries for AI Glasses

Your smart glasses run all day on a battery narrower than your pinky finger and building it required reinventing how batteries are made. In this episode, Pascal talks to Karthik and Myuran, the engine...

9 Juni 42min

85: Reel Friends: Building Social Discovery that Scales to Billions

85: Reel Friends: Building Social Discovery that Scales to Billions

You've probably spotted those little circles of your friends' faces popping up on Facebook Reels. They look simple enough, but building them was a proper engineering challenge. In this episode, Pascal...

8 Maj 38min

84: Trust But Canary: Configuration Safety at Scale

84: Trust But Canary: Configuration Safety at Scale

Have you ever wondered how Meta makes config rollouts safe at scale? In this episode, Pascal sits down with Ishwari and Joe to discuss Meta's approach for propagating changes across services in second...

2 Apr 37min

83: Patch Me If You Can: AI Codemods for Secure-by-Default Android Apps

83: Patch Me If You Can: AI Codemods for Secure-by-Default Android Apps

At Meta, even seemingly simple engineering tasks—like updating an API—become monumental undertakings when you're dealing with millions of lines of code and thousands of engineers, especially if the ch...

27 Feb 47min

82: CSS at Scale with StyleX

82: CSS at Scale with StyleX

It's not just Not Invented Here Syndrome. Some technologies like CSS simply don't scale if you're building some of the largest websites on the planet with thousands of engineers committing to the same...

8 Jan 44min

81: From Zero to Polish: Building Meta Ray-Ban Display

81: From Zero to Polish: Building Meta Ray-Ban Display

You've likely heard of Meta Ray-Ban Display by now — but what's it actually like to work on it? In this episode, Pascal talks to Kenan and Emanuel about the exciting features of Meta's First-Gen Displ...

12 Dec 202547min

Populärt inom Teknik

uppgang-och-fall
market-makers
rss-elektrikerpodden
rss-laddstationen-med-elbilen-i-sverige
skogsforum-podcast
 och-bilen-gar-bra
rss-en-ai-till-kaffet
rss-uppgang-och-fall
bli-saker-podden
rss-technokratin
hej-bruksbil
bilar-med-sladd
gubbar-som-tjotar-om-bilar
rss-veckans-ai
under-femton
klocksnack-tillsammans-med-nymans-ur-1851
rss-milpodden
bosse-bildoktorn-och-hasse-p
elbilsveckan
natets-morka-sida