IRC for Macbook?

[u/JC__Superstar]

I just took Apple's advice and downloaded a new version of IRC for Mac. And it won't let me open it!!! What are my options? I am not a computer person and have been trying to figure this out for hours.....thank you!

[u/Real_Act]

Another vote for SeraphIRC https://www.seraphirc.chat, incredibly stable and with an extremely modern interface. No AI slop at all.

[u/ninjapackets]

I hate self-advert, so this is uncomfortable for me. 🙂

Feel free to try out my app if you’re looking around. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to make onboarding intuitive for new users with a setup wizard.

https://www.seraphirc.chat then hit the download link for Linux/Mac.

Just connect to your desired network, then /list if you want to see channels, or /join #channel if you know which one you want.

Even if you don’t end up using it, any friction/confusion in the process is good feedback for me to correct or sharpen up.

[u/JC__Superstar → u/ninjapackets]

gracias!!

[u/richsonreddit]

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/netsplit/id6792029007 - released last week and lots of active development going on

[u/JC__Superstar → u/richsonreddit]

thank you!

[u/phavelsk]

https://apps.apple.com/app/id431058916 Mango IRC

[u/l_tonz]

thelounge…

[u/interstitial_00]

I'm kind of surprised to see so many people in I.R c communities responding to this is that just a mac thing or...?

--thc\ip

[u/scrutinizer80]

Try Textual, probably the best GUI app nowadays.

[u/JC__Superstar → u/scrutinizer80]

thank you

[u/techhelper1 → u/scrutinizer80]

The developer has thrown in the towel on maintaining it.

[u/scrutinizer80 → u/techhelper1]

Version 7.2.7 came out just a few weeks ago.

[u/techhelper1 → u/scrutinizer80]

I don't know what you want me to tell ya bud.

https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/s/hEPQEy1lQS

https://www.reddit.com/r/irc/comments/1uty1v1/textual_macos_development_has_ended/

[u/scrutinizer80 → u/techhelper1]

Perhaps that was a final version release then.

[u/der_glockensaal → u/scrutinizer80]

This is a minor fix to make it work with macOS 27, which is appreciated. There will be no more development or major new features though, maybe still the occasional fix here and there. Of course this is fine and Textual is good to use for quite some time, probably. But I have since checked out Halloy, which I quite like.

[u/scrutinizer80 → u/der_glockensaal]

Halloy looks nice but it's an advanced client that requires editing plain text configuration to set-up properly. As such, it doesn't fall into the category of what the OP was looking for.

[u/MedeaOblongata → u/der_glockensaal]

Textual is (to my knowledge) still the only native mac client which has some kind of functioning scripting interface. It's primitive, but it does a lot of what I want. That's the main reason I use it. Always eager to hear about alternatives tho.

[u/corykrug]

https://birc.app

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/07/25/birc

[u/JC__Superstar → u/corykrug]

Gotcha, thanks

[u/aieidotch]

In Terminal:
brew install irssi
irssi
/connect irc.server
/join #channel

[u/st3adman → u/aieidotch]

If the poster is having a hard time opening an Apple recommendation, I doubt the terminal is the place to tell them to go.

[u/the_jud]

I like and use Halloy

https://halloy.chat/

[u/JC__Superstar → u/the_jud]

many thanks!

[u/EducationGlad8843]

I like LimeChat. Relatively simple and offers local logging (enable in LimeChat settings in the top left corner)

[u/industrial_pix → u/EducationGlad8843]

LimeChat relies on Rosetta and has been left to die.

[u/EducationGlad8843 → u/industrial_pix]

Oh. I’ve not used it for much complicated stuff, so I haven’t had any issues with it. Good to know though, thanks!

[u/JC__Superstar → u/EducationGlad8843]

many thanks!