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Chat & Talk Applications

Ircle

Home Page Release Notes

Current Version: 3.1.2 (February 15, 2005)

The premiere Internet Relay Chat program for the Mac. I'm not much for IRC, but this is a client that really impresses me. It's rock solid, has a great interface, and is filled with features. From the Info-Mac abstract: Ircle takes less space (disk or RAM), is more stable, and responds faster than Homer. A must for slow Macs." While version the version 3.1 series has made a host of changes, version 3.1.2 specifically adds/changes the following:

  • Bug fixes related to sending audio and video. You should now be able to use an iSight camera for instance, and just about any compression method to send video streams to other ircle users. Both sides need to have ircle 3.1.2 or newer.
  • Ircle now sends the correct Notice command when using /onotice on servers that do not support the wallchops command, but that do support notice @#channel.
  • Error -1407 after receiving or sending faces fixed.

User Reviews

"Ircle is the current reigning heavyweight champion of Macintosh IRC clients. Although the learning curve is a bit steeper than other IRC clients, the climb is more than worth it. Ircle is simply the most stable, most powerful IRC client available for Mac. The developer, "Onno," is always working on improvements, and can often be found on Undernet's "#macintosh" channel soliciting comments from users. Ircle features simple IRC macros, DCC Chat and file transfers, a "progress bar" type memory readout (so you don't open TOO many channels at once!) and the most recent 2.6 alpha even uses drag and drop (that's right, kick a troublesome user by dragging his name to the "Kick" button!) Too many other features to mention in a short space."
—John Weiglein

"I've only been using IRC for a few months now, and used Homer originally. I had so many problems with it--loss of connection and freezeups--that I was ready to quit trying to chat online entirely. One of my friends suggested I try Ircle. From the first time I tried it, I have had none of the freezeups and almost no "bumpoffs" that were driving me crazy with Homer. If I were to recommend an IRC program for the Mac, it would be Ircle, without a doubt."
—Steve Busby

"I have been using Ircle for about 6 months now, and let me tell you, I have had a lot of fun using it. You can adjust the background--and the text--to whatever colors you wish! And the DCC chat protocol is absolutely wonderful. You can chat privately with another user, and send files back and forth. It is fast and very stable. I am absolutely hooked on Ircle.... [It's the] very best chat client for Mac users! On a scale of 1 to 10, I give Ircle an 11!"
—Connie Myers

"I can only concur with the other praises listed in your user reviews site. Ircle is tops; add to it Wardawg's MacPack [and] AAirchat Font and you can leave even the most sophisticated Pirch for PC user behind in the dust. I *love* Ircle and can only thank Onno for the effort put into developing this wonderful application. It makes chat sessions a delight!"
—Gabriella Pirola

"The other reviews are quite correct about Ircle's reliability and usability. As a user of other irc clients, I should like to point out that the normal irc II commands are a *strength* of this client. Unfortunately, ircle *still* does not support loading of ircII scripts, nor does it implement the /ignore feature correctly. If you wish to /ignore someone msging you, or if you only wish to /ignore tedious sound requests, you must ignore everything from that person."
—Dontula Narasimharao

Submit another review!

Download the 680x0 version.
Download the Power Mac version.
Download the Mac OS X (Carbon) version.

Beta:
Version 3.5a6 for Mac OS X (Carbon / Universal, May 20, 2008) is now available, adding/changing the following:

  • Prefs are now saved in plist file. (a5)
  • Uses modern OS X network routines. (a5)
  • Does SSL server connections as well as SSL DCC Chat (/DCC SCHAT nick). In order to make secure DCC Chat work you need to install a Signed Certificate once with 'certtool'. Instructions will follow. (a5)
  • Numerous smaller fixes. (a5)
  • Known problems: Socks firewall support does not work. (a5)
  • Fixed DCC problems. (a4)
  • Fixed problem with tabexpand script event. (a3)
  • Window tile bug solved. (a3)
  • Fixed crash on Intel Macs. (a3)
  • Fixed crashes with dcc sendface, sendvideo. (a3)
  • Fixed problem in Join dialog window. (a3)
  • Intel and PowerPC pref files are now mostly compatible. some minor problems need to be resolved. (a3)
  • Fixed problem in DCC send acknowledgement routine. (a3)
  • Recognizes horizontal mouse wheel movements. (a3)
  • Fixed a problem with loading and unloading scripts, especially when the script routines 'load data' and 'save data' were called. (a2)
  • Ircle is now a Carbon Mach-O application, compiled with XCode, old Pascal code has either been removed or translated to C. (a1)
  • Universal Binary, it runs on Mac OS X for PowerPC and Intel processors. (a1)
  • Supports MP3, AIFF custom sounds (a1)
  • Supports Growl notifications. (a1)
  • Many optimizations, code cleanup, resulting in a slightly faster application. (a1)

The online release notes have more information.


Also See . . .

Can't find what you're looking for? Try a search:

Also, if you have an older Mac, be sure to check out the "Classic" applications page for more options.

Finally, take a look at ALEMIA if you think you know that name of an application, but aren't quite sure.

Also Consider . . .

These are applications that are newer and of potential interest, but which I haven't yet selected for permanent inclusion. Have a look, and let me know if you think they deserve to be part of the permanent collection!