Yes, mIRC and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) are still active. While no longer the dominant force they were in the late 1990s and early 2000s, both the mIRC client and the broader decentralized IRC protocol remain vital tools for specific communities, developers, and tech enthusiasts. The State of mIRC
Despite the rise of corporate giants like Discord and Slack, mIRC is consistently updated by its creator, Khaled Mardam-Bey.
Active Development: The client actively pushes patches, introducing features like Windows dark mode, modern SASL authentication, and updated SSL/TLS encryption.
Platform Lock-in: It remains strictly a Windows desktop application.
Shareware Model: It still operates on its classic 30-day evaluation model, after which a registration fee is requested. Why People Still Use IRC
The top 100 IRC networks still host over 160,000 concurrent users globally. Its sustained relevance comes down to its open nature:
Why do people still use IRC (Internet Relay Chat) : r/opensource
26 Mar 2022 — It’s easy to write bots.Personally, I don’t like IRC because the default user experience is pretty bad, for example no history- Reddit·r/opensource
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