7 ms·

What’s the nicest looking IRC client these days? I lately only ever use any chat client sporadically so I’m out of touch, but may be needing a platform soon.

What’s the nicest looking IRC client these days? I lately only ever use any chat client sporadically so I’m out of touch, but may be needing a platform soon. Interesting note: I worked at AOL when AIM was introduced and was one of the first users :-P When I moved to tech support of a local cable internet company that was our official work chat :-)

mattcoles 9y ago
If you have a Mac, Textual is a great IRC client although their upgrade policy is a bit frustrating, in that upgrades don't seem to be free for life, only discounted.
- madeofpalk 9y ago
  'Great' is relative. Textual (and Colloquy) are tolerable at best.
kough 9y ago
I use Limechat on OSX and Hexchat on Windows and am mildly dissatisfied with both.
- elsurudo 9y ago
  I already commented on this, but have you tried Colloquy for Mac? http://colloquy.info http://colloquy.info
croon 9y ago
As someone who's been on irc since the mid 90s and have had and still do have a couple of Irssis running in screens for 10+ years, I have to say that irccloud is pretty great for ease of use. There was an open source clone called ircanywhere, but it seems abandoned. I have no idea what the future holds, and I always welcome new tools and disruptions, and I'm using slack, discord, messenger etc for various communities. What keeps me from leaving irc is: * friction in moving all users that have been using an IRC channel for 20 years * stupid stuff in slack and messenger like lock in and slow search. I really like grep:ing logs for links and discussions and then reading the context up and down, which I have found difficult in web services.
- xPaw 9y ago
  If you're looking for an open source alternative to IRCCloud, then The Lounge[1] pretty much fills that niche. [1] https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge
  - tomphoolery 9y ago
    haha this client name reminds me of the old mIRC Channel List days!
  - prophesi 9y ago
    +1 to The Lounge. It's how I was able to get a few friends & coworkers to start using IRC.
    - astorije 9y ago
      Are you using The Lounge for work? Would you mind sharing which company? It would help me find out if/what companies are (disclaimer: I'm one of the dev). Thanks!
  - LinuxBender 9y ago
    Disclaimer: I personally do not need emoji's. Does TheLounge let users upload custom emoji? I ask, because my coworkers say, "You can take Slack from my cold dead hands". There was even a great emoji war. I would like to stand up a web interface to IRC and let folks play around on it. I tried Convos, but it didn't seem to fit that piece of the puzzle. For the backend, I have always used UnrealIRCD + Anope services. It has always been rock solid and scales beyond any need I could imagine. It would be great if there were a modern web interface I could put in front of it that people would want to use.
    - MaxLeiter 9y ago
      No, it does not support that. Just uses unicode emojis and lets the OS/browser handle the rendering
gsich 9y ago
I'm using Louge [0] It's a web application with nodejs stuff. [0] https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge
giancarlostoro 9y ago
I'm fairly impressed with Quassel: https://quassel-irc.org/ https://quassel-irc.org/
- kuschku 9y ago
  Especially when used in the core/client split version, which allows you to use the webclient https://github.com/magne4000/quassel-webserver/ https://github.com/magne4000/quassel-webserver/, the irssi-client https://github.com/phhusson/quassel-irssi https://github.com/phhusson/quassel-irssi, the iOS client https://woboq.com/iquassel.html https://woboq.com/iquassel.html, the Android client https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iskrembilen.quasseldroid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iskrembile... or https://f-droid.org/packages/com.iskrembilen.quasseldroid/ https://f-droid.org/packages/com.iskrembilen.quasseldroid/, the new alpha of the new android client https://quasseldroid.info/ https://quasseldroid.info/, and the fulltext search https://github.com/justjanne/quassel-rest-search https://github.com/justjanne/quassel-rest-search (with demo here: http://s3.kuschku.de/public/quassel-rest-search.mp4 http://s3.kuschku.de/public/quassel-rest-search.mp4 ) Quassel alone is a kinda nice client, with the entire ecosystem around it, it becomes amazingly powerful. And the beauty of the Qt client is that, being Qt, you can fully style it with css - e.g. https://bugs.quassel-irc.org/projects/quassel-irc/wiki/Stylesheet_Gallery https://bugs.quassel-irc.org/projects/quassel-irc/wiki/Style... Disclaimer: I contribute to some of the above mentioned projects)
  - giancarlostoro 9y ago
    That is so incredible! I've never split it up, I just use the "all-in-one" package usually. Might take the time to deploy the detached server on DO sometime.
purerandomness 9y ago
IRCCloud and their night theme + their Android + iOS app.
mfer 9y ago
You might want to take a look at https://www.irccloud.com https://www.irccloud.com. The best apps tend to be platform dependent. I know many who like http://colloquy.info http://colloquy.info for mac, for example.
verylittlemeat 9y ago
bitchx
janvdberg 9y ago
For me: WeeChat (running in a screen/tmux) + Glowing Bear (webinterface WeeChat frontend).
- LinuxBender 9y ago
  WeeChat + screen is awesome. I was using it for Slack. It handled their strange use of +v/-v for user is away at least, better than Epic I've never tried Glowing Bear. Maybe that would be a nice way for friends to get comfortable with IRC?
  - janvdberg 9y ago
    You still can, with Wee- Slack (https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack) that's what I use now.
    - LinuxBender 9y ago
      Oh sorry, I just meant a way to get friends comfortable with IRC by having a simple doc that says how to use Glowing Bear in front of a simple weechat config so that they could easily move to IRC vs. slack. i.e. even using freenode with a modern web interface. I've seen the wee-chat-slack plugin, but it feels wrong using a normal IRC client to a heavy web stack.
elsurudo 9y ago
For Mac, Colloquy is quite good: http://colloquy.info http://colloquy.info Works well, and is a native app that fits well into the general ecosystem.
- op00to 9y ago
  I think Textual looks cleaner and is more functional than Textual - probably because the Textual team picks and chooses what Mac app design cues to use.
  - drdeca 9y ago
    Was the second instance of "textual" (out of the 3) meant to say something else?
    - op00to 9y ago
      Ha - good catch. Colloquy not Textual. I was on the John.
sexydefinesher 9y ago
irssi, it really enhances the experience when you can brag about your e-peen
coldacid 9y ago
When I was a wild-haired youth, mIRC was my client of choice, but these days I much prefer KVIrc.
_sdegutis 9y ago
I prefer Limechat for macOS. It’s plain and simple but not terminal based or archaic looking. At least to me anyway. And it has themes.

mattcoles 9y ago

If you have a Mac, Textual is a great IRC client although their upgrade policy is a bit frustrating, in that upgrades don't seem to be free for life, only discounted.

madeofpalk 9y ago
'Great' is relative. Textual (and Colloquy) are tolerable at best.

kough 9y ago

I use Limechat on OSX and Hexchat on Windows and am mildly dissatisfied with both.

elsurudo 9y ago
I already commented on this, but have you tried Colloquy for Mac? http://colloquy.info http://colloquy.info

croon 9y ago

As someone who's been on irc since the mid 90s and have had and still do have a couple of Irssis running in screens for 10+ years, I have to say that irccloud is pretty great for ease of use. There was an open source clone called ircanywhere, but it seems abandoned. I have no idea what the future holds, and I always welcome new tools and disruptions, and I'm using slack, discord, messenger etc for various communities. What keeps me from leaving irc is: * friction in moving all users that have been using an IRC channel for 20 years * stupid stuff in slack and messenger like lock in and slow search. I really like grep:ing logs for links and discussions and then reading the context up and down, which I have found difficult in web services.

xPaw 9y ago
If you're looking for an open source alternative to IRCCloud, then The Lounge[1] pretty much fills that niche. [1] https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge
- tomphoolery 9y ago
  haha this client name reminds me of the old mIRC Channel List days!
- prophesi 9y ago
  +1 to The Lounge. It's how I was able to get a few friends & coworkers to start using IRC.
  - astorije 9y ago
    Are you using The Lounge for work? Would you mind sharing which company? It would help me find out if/what companies are (disclaimer: I'm one of the dev). Thanks!
- LinuxBender 9y ago
  Disclaimer: I personally do not need emoji's. Does TheLounge let users upload custom emoji? I ask, because my coworkers say, "You can take Slack from my cold dead hands". There was even a great emoji war. I would like to stand up a web interface to IRC and let folks play around on it. I tried Convos, but it didn't seem to fit that piece of the puzzle. For the backend, I have always used UnrealIRCD + Anope services. It has always been rock solid and scales beyond any need I could imagine. It would be great if there were a modern web interface I could put in front of it that people would want to use.
  - MaxLeiter 9y ago
    No, it does not support that. Just uses unicode emojis and lets the OS/browser handle the rendering

gsich 9y ago

I'm using Louge [0] It's a web application with nodejs stuff. [0] https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge

giancarlostoro 9y ago

I'm fairly impressed with Quassel: https://quassel-irc.org/ https://quassel-irc.org/

kuschku 9y ago
Especially when used in the core/client split version, which allows you to use the webclient https://github.com/magne4000/quassel-webserver/ https://github.com/magne4000/quassel-webserver/, the irssi-client https://github.com/phhusson/quassel-irssi https://github.com/phhusson/quassel-irssi, the iOS client https://woboq.com/iquassel.html https://woboq.com/iquassel.html, the Android client https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iskrembilen.quasseldroid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iskrembile... or https://f-droid.org/packages/com.iskrembilen.quasseldroid/ https://f-droid.org/packages/com.iskrembilen.quasseldroid/, the new alpha of the new android client https://quasseldroid.info/ https://quasseldroid.info/, and the fulltext search https://github.com/justjanne/quassel-rest-search https://github.com/justjanne/quassel-rest-search (with demo here: http://s3.kuschku.de/public/quassel-rest-search.mp4 http://s3.kuschku.de/public/quassel-rest-search.mp4 ) Quassel alone is a kinda nice client, with the entire ecosystem around it, it becomes amazingly powerful. And the beauty of the Qt client is that, being Qt, you can fully style it with css - e.g. https://bugs.quassel-irc.org/projects/quassel-irc/wiki/Stylesheet_Gallery https://bugs.quassel-irc.org/projects/quassel-irc/wiki/Style... Disclaimer: I contribute to some of the above mentioned projects)
- giancarlostoro 9y ago
  That is so incredible! I've never split it up, I just use the "all-in-one" package usually. Might take the time to deploy the detached server on DO sometime.

purerandomness 9y ago

IRCCloud and their night theme + their Android + iOS app.

mfer 9y ago

You might want to take a look at https://www.irccloud.com https://www.irccloud.com. The best apps tend to be platform dependent. I know many who like http://colloquy.info http://colloquy.info for mac, for example.

verylittlemeat 9y ago

bitchx

janvdberg 9y ago

For me: WeeChat (running in a screen/tmux) + Glowing Bear (webinterface WeeChat frontend).

LinuxBender 9y ago
WeeChat + screen is awesome. I was using it for Slack. It handled their strange use of +v/-v for user is away at least, better than Epic I've never tried Glowing Bear. Maybe that would be a nice way for friends to get comfortable with IRC?
- janvdberg 9y ago
  You still can, with Wee- Slack (https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack) that's what I use now.
  - LinuxBender 9y ago
    Oh sorry, I just meant a way to get friends comfortable with IRC by having a simple doc that says how to use Glowing Bear in front of a simple weechat config so that they could easily move to IRC vs. slack. i.e. even using freenode with a modern web interface. I've seen the wee-chat-slack plugin, but it feels wrong using a normal IRC client to a heavy web stack.

elsurudo 9y ago

For Mac, Colloquy is quite good: http://colloquy.info http://colloquy.info Works well, and is a native app that fits well into the general ecosystem.

op00to 9y ago
I think Textual looks cleaner and is more functional than Textual - probably because the Textual team picks and chooses what Mac app design cues to use.
- drdeca 9y ago
  Was the second instance of "textual" (out of the 3) meant to say something else?
  - op00to 9y ago
    Ha - good catch. Colloquy not Textual. I was on the John.

sexydefinesher 9y ago

irssi, it really enhances the experience when you can brag about your e-peen

coldacid 9y ago

When I was a wild-haired youth, mIRC was my client of choice, but these days I much prefer KVIrc.

_sdegutis 9y ago

I prefer Limechat for macOS. It’s plain and simple but not terminal based or archaic looking. At least to me anyway. And it has themes.