Having Slack-like features on IRC? reddit / irc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- foadsf · 2019-10-15 13:35 I'm very new to the whole IRC thing but it seems amazing so far. Not because of its features, but because of [the great communities available there](https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/di5f4r/c hat_groups_on_irc_and_discord_for_scientific_and/). However, compared to some of the modern chat platforms such as Slack, there are a lot of features missing: * to reply to a specific message and to have foldable threads * to mention some users directly * to have some form of markup language to format messages (bold, embed links, quote ...) * to see the chat history and being able to search it * have some sub-channels for specific topics * adding tags to messages * multiline messages * having one ID across devices (now I'm foadsf on desktop and foadsf1 on mobile!) At the moment I'm using Pidgin on my Windows machine and [Revolution IRC](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.mrarm.irc/) on my Android device. It is really annoying that my mobile client pulls me out of the groups every time I lock my phone and every night all my channels disappear, which I have to enter again manually. It is also annoying that a lot of groups are just people entering and existing channels while useful discussions being hidden between these garbage notifications. It would be great if these notifications could be filtered out or to be hidden somehow. Now my questions are: * are these the best clients for IRC on the devices I have (Windows, macOS, and Android)? * Is there any way to add the above features to these clients (e.g., using some extensions/plugins)? * Are there any other/better clients capable of ding things like those mentioned above? Thanks for your support in advance. **P.S.** from comments I have received here and also on IRCs, I'm gonna try these * The Lounge * ZNC * Riot ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A-UNDERSCORE-D · 2019-10-15 13:50 >specific message replies and foldable threads I find this feature personally useless, as it hides information from users. Reaction less so, but still. Either way, there is an [IRCv3 spec for it](https://ircv3.net/specs/client-tags/reply) (in fact, there are [two](https://ircv3.net/specs/client-tags/react)) >Mention some users directly This is already a thing. Almost all clients support pinging users >Markup language to format messages [This already exists, bold, italics, underline, colour](https://modern.ircdocs.horse/formatting.html). Though some more markdown things would be nice. Some clients support further formatting >to see the chat history and being able to search it Without a bouncer, the IRC protocol simply does not support it. IRC is intended to be realtime. Some IRCds support storing messages for some time to replay to users, but this has privacy concerns (as does any serverside storage of messages) >have some sub-channels for specific topics ...IRC has channels. Its simple to create one and use it. Im not seeing what you want here. >It is really annoying that my mobile client pulls me out of the groups every time I lock my phone and every night all my channels disappear, which I have to enter again manually. Use a bouncer, or something like IRCcloud (which provides a bouncer for you). Most clients support saving channels. >It is also annoying that a lot of groups are just people entering and existing channels while useful discussions being hidden between these garbage notifications. It would be great if these notifications could be filtered out or to be hidden somehow. Almost all clients support this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MechMaster48 · 2019-10-15 15:47 This guy said it all. It’s almost like you did not even try IRC at all.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Machinehum · 2019-10-15 17:00 The reason I like IRC is because it doesn't buffer old messages... When you enter a channel it's like entering a physical room, where you have no idea the context of the old chat. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Exit42 · 2019-10-16 03:43 So turn IRC into Slack?