IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, is one of the oldest real-time Internet communication systems. It was created in 1988 by Jarkko Oikarinen, a Finnish developer working at the University of Oulu. Oikarinen developed IRC to replace an existing communications program called MUT (MultiUser Talk) on the university’s BBS (Bulletin Board System) called OuluBox.
The original design of IRC allowed people to communicate via text across various channels (similar to group chat rooms) or through private messages. Its open, flexible protocol quickly gained popularity beyond Finland, especially after it was used during the 1990 Gulf War to share news from around the world when mainstream news channels were slow to update.
As IRC grew during the early 1990s, different groups started creating their own IRC servers and networks, resulting in the rise of multiple, sometimes competing, networks. Some well-known ones included EFnet (Eris Free network), Undernet, and DALnet. Each of these networks often had its own standards, rules, and enhancements.
IRC also suffered from “IRC warfare” in the mid-to-late 1990s, where rival groups would engage in server takeovers (often called “netsplits” and “nick-collisions”) and other disruptions. This led to ongoing development of security features and enhancements to the IRC protocol.
Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, IRC remained a foundational structure for online communities, particularly for tech-savvy users, open-source software developers, and various interest groups. It heavily influenced many later chat protocols and systems.
However, starting in the 2000s and accelerating in the 2010s, IRC began to lose users to newer, more modern platforms like Slack, Discord, and various instant messaging apps. These tools offered more user-friendly interfaces, built-in media sharing, and persistent chat histories, features that IRC lacked or supported weakly.
Despite its decline in mainstream popularity, IRC continues to exist today. Networks like Libera.Chat (which many open-source projects moved to after leaving Freenode in 2021) are still active hubs for real-time discussion, especially among developers, FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) communities, and niche interests.
In summary, IRC played a critical role in the early development of online communication, laying many of the foundations for chat and real-time messaging that we now take for granted. Its open nature, simplicity, and extensibility enabled it to thrive for decades, even as the Internet itself evolved dramatically.
Greetings going to:
AgaPL, MadMax, Platyna, evilcat, ananke, Buczo, mizoo, mixu, amgis, _GiGi_, crashev, zim, wezpe, Grifter, Farus, NEO2k, mm, Slaw, SubMuffi, opti, Simo, Lasim, Nowak ...
... and to all others I've forgotten ;-)