🐳"><br>IRC technology news from the first half of 2026 | Ilmari Lauhakangas
IRC technology news from the first half of 2026
Categories: IRC
05 Aug, 2026
In the previous news article I expressed my disappointment about the flood of vibe-coded IRC projects. A couple of things happened since then. The IRCv3 Working Group started adding AI markers (robot icons) to software listed in the support tables on ircv3.net when it is known to be developed with substantial AI assistance. The members of Codeberg e. V. voted 358 to 144 to prohibit vibe-coded projects from the free Codeberg code hosting service. All of this is very helpful for evaluating new software projects.
Below you will find an entry for a new mobile app called Mensajitos, which in a refreshing turn of events is coded by traditional brain-hand coordination and has a clear and sensible AI policy. It truly is nectar for the weary soul to see such projects still being created.
Protocol specifications
The working group published a spec round-up in February, highlighting the ratified reply client tag and Websockets as well as updates to react client tag, Metadata and client-batch. Since the round-up post, the group ratified Account Extended Ban, no-implicit-names extension, channel-context client tag and introduced a draft oper-tag extension. Updates to existing specs and drafts included chathistory-context and chathistory-end tags and an ACCOUNTREQUIRED ISUPPORT token alongside several improvements to the account-registration draft spec.
Mobile clients
goguma - for mobile Linux, iOS and Android
Support was added for network icons and avatar metadata, sharing videos from the phone’s media library, unreactions, redacting reactions, chathistory-end tag, CHATHISTORY TARGETS pagination and ACCOUNTREQUIRED ISUPPORT token.
IRCCloud - connect to any IRC server out there, and even Slack workspaces
The Android app received UI updates for improved compatibility with newer Android versions and the handling of reply tag in the iOS app was made more robust.
Mensajitos - client for Android and iOS
This is a new client that was made public in June. It aims to feel like a real mobile chat app rather than a terminal client pushed inside a phone screen. It makes use of React Native.
Weechat-Android - WeeChat relay client for Android
Error messages are now shown in snackbars (messages at the bottom of the screen) and the copy dialog was improved.
WeechatRN - WeeChat relay client for mobile using WebSockets
A button for scrolling to unread messages was added and it is now possible to configure the relay path.
Web clients
Convos - Go in the backend and Svelte in the frontend
The backend was ported from Perl to Go. The plugin system was dropped as it was tightly coupled to Perl, the CMS was removed, OIDC login support was added for single sign on, Web Push is now supported for notifications on mobile clients, channel mode handling was improved, support was added for server-time, multi-prefix, userhost-in-names, extended-join, the message tags msgid, account and reply and /ignore and /unignore commands were added for filtering messages from nicks locally in the client.
gamja – a bare-bones web client
The user experience of file uploads was improved and a router was added, allowing to restore the focused buffer on page refresh per a URL scheme.
irc-hybrid-client - single user hybrid client using JavaScript frontend and Node.js/Express backend
A custom background colour can be specified for each IRC channel and an allow list for websocket Origin was implemented.
KiwiIRC – uses static files and supports theming and plugins (JavaScript)
The dark theme was improved and language detection was made more robust.
The Lounge - modern web client utilising Node.js
A /cleartopic command was added, msgid tags are now handled, actions like /me now receive STATUSMSG indications, accessibility was improved and the mobile viewport now behaves well when the virtual keyboard appears.
Desktop clients
bIRC screenshot
bIRC - a native client for macOS
This is a new app, which already supports all IRCv3 features, including the ones in draft state. It also works with bouncers, supports DCC file transfers and is scriptable with JavaScript.
ERC - an Emacs IRC client
A match API was added for reacting to the content and other data of messages, desktop notifications became more configurable and a settings module was added for applying options granularly.
geoIRC - a client for Commodore GEOS in 6502 assembly
To use this, you need GEOS running on a Commodore 64 with a 1541 Ultimate II+ cartridge or an Ultimate 64. On YouTube there is a general presentation and a technical deep-dive about the client.
Halloy – cross-platform client written in Rust
Additions include a /connect command to temporarily connect to a server, support for transparent background, ability to add multiple keybinds for a single shortcut, support for emoji reactions with IRCv3 react, ability to...