IRC Chat in 2024: Why Old-School Internet Relay Chat Still Matters

In an era where Discord dominates and Slack owns workplace chat, IRC seems like a relic. Text-only (mostly), command-line interfaces, arcane slash commands—it's everything modern UX designers hate. Yet thousands of developers, hackers, and open-source contributors use IRC daily. There's something here worth understanding.

What Is IRC, Actually?

IRC is a protocol—a set of rules for how chat servers and clients communicate. Unlike proprietary platforms (Discord, Slack, Teams), IRC is open. Anyone can run an IRC server. Anyone can write an IRC client. No company owns it, controls it, or can shut it down.

Think of IRC like email. Email is a protocol (SMTP), and there are thousands of email servers and clients. Gmail can't shut down email—it's just one implementation. IRC works the same way. Freenode can collapse (and it did in 2021), but IRC continues. Communities just move to different servers.

The basic structure is simple: servers host channels (like #linux or #python), users connect with clients (like mIRC or HexChat), and everyone chats in real-time. No message history (unless you log it yourself), no cloud storage, no data harvesting. Just pure, real-time text communication.

A Brief History: How IRC Conquered (Then Lost) the Internet

Jarkko Oikarinen created IRC in 1988 at the University of Oulu in Finland. He wanted a replacement for the university's talk program that could handle multiple users. The timing was perfect—the internet was expanding, people wanted to communicate, and IRC spread like wildfire.

By the early 1990s, IRC was THE place for real-time online communication. During the 1991 Soviet coup attempt, IRC channels provided real-time updates from Moscow when other communication was restricted. During the Gulf War, IRC channels shared updates from journalists and civilians in Baghdad. IRC was where news broke first.

The mid-90s were IRC's golden age. Networks like EFnet, DALnet, and Undernet had hundreds of thousands of users. IRC was mainstream—regular people, not just nerds, hung out in channels. It was the Reddit of its time, with channels for every interest imaginable.

Then came the 2000s, and IRC started losing to friendlier alternatives. AIM and MSN Messenger had GUI clients that your grandmother could use. IRC required learning commands like /join, /msg, and /whois. The learning curve killed mainstream adoption.

By 2010, IRC was mostly abandoned by casual users. But it never died. Developer communities, open-source projects, and hacker collectives stuck with IRC. It worked well for their needs, and they didn't care about fancy GUIs or emoji reactions.

Why IRC Survived When Everything Else Died

AIM died in 2017. MSN Messenger was killed in 2013. Yahoo Messenger shut down in 2018. These platforms had hundreds of millions of users each. IRC, at its peak, probably never exceeded a million simultaneous users. Yet IRC survived. Why?

Who Still Uses IRC in 2024?

The stereotype is that only hardcore nerds use IRC. There's truth to this—if you're chatting about Arch Linux kernel compilation, you're probably on IRC. But the IRC community is more diverse than you'd think.

• Open-source developers: Major projects like Linux, Python, Ruby, Rust, and countless others use IRC for real-time collaboration. The Python core development team hangs out in #python-dev on Libera.Chat. Want to contribute to your favorite open-source project? You might need to learn IRC.
• System administrators: Many sysadmin communities prefer IRC because it's reliable and doesn't depend on external services. When your job is keeping servers running, you don't want your communication platform to have downtime.
• Security researchers and hackers: DefCon, one of the world's largest hacker conferences, has official IRC channels. Security researchers often prefer IRC because it's harder to surveil than centralized platforms. The irony of security experts using 1980s technology to avoid modern surveillance is not lost on anyone.
• Retro computing enthusiasts: People who collect and use vintage computers love IRC because it actually works on their hardware. Good luck running Discord on a Power Mac G4.
• Amateur radio operators: There's overlap between ham radio and IRC communities. Both appreciate open protocols and decentralized communication. Some IRC networks even integrate with radio networks.
• Privacy advocates: People who care about digital privacy often prefer IRC because it doesn't require email verification, phone numbers, or ID verification. You just connect and chat.

IRC vs. Discord: The Culture Clash

Discord has aggressively courted communities that traditionally used IRC. Many open-source projects now have Discord servers in addition to or instead of IRC channels. This has created a genuine culture clash.

Discord's advantages are obvious: rich media, voice chat, video, screen sharing, easy file sharing, better notifications, message history, and a modern interface. For new users, Discord is infinitely more approachable than IRC.

But Discord has fundamental problems that IRC doesn't. It's centralized—Discord the company controls everything. They can (and do) ban servers, read your messages (they're not encrypted), and harvest data. Discord is also slow and bloated—the Electron app uses gigabytes of RAM.

There's also the walled garden problem. Discord chats are isolated. You can't easily search across Discord servers. Content on Discord doesn't show up in search engines. It's a black hole of information. IRC, with public logs, is indexable and searchable.

Many long-time IRC users refuse to switch to Discord on principle. They've seen too many corporate platforms rise and fall. They don't trust Discord to stick around or maintain their values. With IRC, there's no trust needed—you control your own client and can switch servers anytime.

The Modern IRC Experience

IRC in 2024 isn't all mIRC on Windows 98. Modern IRC has evolved while maintaining backward compatibility.

What Modern Platforms Can Learn from IRC

IRC's longevity isn't just about nostalgia or stubborn nerds refusing to adapt. IRC teaches important lessons that modern platforms ignore at their peril.

The Downsides: Why IRC Isn't for Everyone

Let's be honest: IRC has real problems that aren't just about snobby elitists gatekeeping.

The learning curve is real. Telling someone to "just connect to irc.libera.chat, register your nick with /msg NickServ REGISTER, join channels with /join, and set up a bouncer for message history" is not user-friendly. Most people will give up.

No official mobile experience. There are mobile IRC clients, but they're all third-party and none are great. They drain battery because IRC wasn't designed for mobile devices. For a mobile-first world, this is a major limitation.

Text-only (mostly). While IRCv3 is adding features, IRC is primarily text. No inline images, no video, no screen sharing. For many use cases, this is limiting.

Spam and abuse. IRC's openness means dealing with spam, bots, and trolls requires more active moderation. Modern platforms use machine learning and centralized control to handle this—IRC relies on channel operators and network staff.

Fragmentation. There are hundreds of IRC networks. Finding the right one for your community takes research. Discord's centralization is actually convenient—everything's in one place.

Why IRC Still Matters

IRC matters because it's proof that user-controlled, decentralized communication works. In 2024, as Discord becomes more corporate, as Slack raises prices, as Teams forces integration with Microsoft 365, IRC stands as a reminder that another way is possible.

IRC matters because it gives communities true ownership. When you build on Discord, you're Discord's customer, subject to their rules and whims. When you build on IRC, you own your community.

IRC matters because it's efficient. In a world of bloated Electron apps consuming gigabytes of RAM, IRC runs happily in a terminal window using kilobytes. This efficiency isn't just technical—it's philosophical. Do one thing, do it well.

IRC matters because it respects privacy. No data harvesting, no "improving the product with AI," no selling your information to advertisers. What you say in IRC stays in IRC (unless you or someone else logs it).

Most importantly, IRC matters because it's survived. For 35+ years, through booms and busts, through competition from well-funded corporate alternatives, through changing technology and user expectations, IRC has endured. That longevity comes from good design, community ownership, and refusing to compromise core values for growth.

Should You Use IRC in 2024?

Probably not as your main chat platform. Let's be realistic—if you're organizing a gaming clan or a casual community, Discord is the better choice. The user experience is better, features are richer, and your members won't have to learn slash commands.

But if you're involved in open-source development, value privacy and decentralization, or just want to experience a piece of internet history, absolutely give IRC a try. Join Libera.Chat, hop into #python or #linux or whatever interests you, and hang out.

You might find that the simplicity is refreshing. No autoplay videos, no algorithmic feeds, no notification spam. Just people talking about shared interests in real-time. It's the internet the way it used to be—and maybe the way it should be.

IRC won't replace Discord or Slack for most people. But it serves as an important reminder: corporate platforms are not inevitable. User-controlled, decentralized communication is possible. It works. It lasts. And maybe, just maybe, we should demand more of it.