IRC technology news from the first half of 2026

In the first half of 2026, the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) technology landscape saw significant developments. The IRCv3 Working Group began incorporating Artificial Intelligence markers, denoting software with substantial AI assistance, into the support tables on ircv3.net. Codeberg e. V., the members of which vote 358 to 144, prohibited vibe-coded projects from their free Codeberg code hosting service.

A new mobile app, Mensajitos, emerged, coded traditionally with brain-hand coordination and boasting a clear AI policy. The IRCv3 Working Group published a spec round-up in February, highlighting key updates like ratified reply client tag, Websockets, and updates to react client tag, Metadata, and client-batch. Subsequent ratifications included Account Extended Ban, no-implicit-names extension, channel-context client tag, and a draft oper-tag extension.

Existing specs and drafts saw updates, including the introduction of chathistory-context and chathistory-end tags, ACCOUNTREQUIRED ISUPPORT token, and improvements to existing features. The Android app underwent UI enhancements, while the iOS app's handling of the reply tag improved. A button for scrolling to unread messages was added, and the copy dialog was refined.

The backend was moved from Perl to Go, and the plugin system was dropped. Additional features included support for network icons, avatar metadata, sharing videos, unreactions, redacting reactions, chathistory-end tag, pagination, and ACCOUNTREQUIRED ISUPPORT token. The backend porting, plugin system removal, OIDC login support, Web Push notifications, channel mode improvements, server-time, multi-prefix, userhost-in-names, extended-join support, /ignore and /unignore commands, file upload improvements, a router for focused buffer restoration, custom background colors per channel, and more reflect the client's robustness and versatility.