Traditionally, chat clients on the Mac have been anything but glamorous. Colloquy is an advanced IRC & SILC client which aims to fill this void.
Colloquy 2.1 under Mac OS X 10.5.1, Mobile Colloquy 1.0.1 under iOS | |
| Developer(s) | Timothy (xenon)[1] |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 2004 |
| Stable release | 2.4.3 (6011) (March 22, 2014; 6 years ago) [±] |
| Preview release | None [±] |
| Repository | |
| Written in | Objective-C |
| Operating system | macOS, iOS |
| Available in | English |
| Type | IRC client |
| License | Desktop: GPL Mobile: BSD license |
| Website | colloquy.info |
Colloquy is an open-sourceIRC, SILC, ICB and XMPP[2] client for Mac OS X. Colloquy uses its own core, known as Chat Core, although in the past it used Irssi as its IRC protocol engine. One of the primary goals behind Colloquy was to create an IRC, SILC and ICB client with Mac OS X visuals. Colloquy contains a user interface that follows Apple's Human interface guidelines in addition to containing support for traditional IRC command-line controls such as /nick and /join.
An official app for the iOS was released and features support for all IRC commands, a built-in browser, Push notifications and other features.
Features[edit]
Colloquy supports a variety of different text modifications. One text manipulation supported by Colloquy is the use of colors as used by mIRC; with the primary colors being: White, Black, Navy, Forest, Red, Maroon, Purple, Orange, Yellow, Green, Teal, Cyan, Blue, Magenta, Grey, and Ash. Additionally, Colloquy supports formatting text with underlining, italics, bold, and outline.
Colloquy supports scripting in languages such as AppleScript,[3]F-Script, JavaScript, Objective-C and Python. Colloquy shows changes such as mode changes, ban sets, etc. in a human-readable format, rather than showing raw modes.
Plugins and customizability[edit]
Colloquy is built on Apple's WebKit engine and supports customizable message views called 'styles' using a combination of XSLT, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. These act like themes, altering the way the application displays chat sessions. The software also supports a wide array of plugins that enable customization of the application and integration with other aspects of the Mac OS X environment.
The Colloquy Web Interface plugin allows monitoring of the Colloguy desktop IRC connection from an iPhone's Safari browser, or any web browser.[4]
Reception[edit]
Both the desktop client and the mobile (iPhone) client have received positive reviews. The desktop client was selected as a Pick of the Week on MacOSXHints.com.[5]
The Colloquy iPhone app was favorably reviewed on Ars Technica,[6]The Unofficial Apple Weblog,[7] GigaOM,[8] and AppleInsider.[9]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Timothy Hatcher. Colloquy Trac wiki.
- ^timothy. Ticket #454. colloquy.info.
- ^Piccard, Paul L.; Sachs, Marcus H. (2006). Securing IM and P2P applications for the enterprise. Syngress. p. 430. ISBN1-59749-017-2.
- ^Stolarz, Damien; Jurick, David; Stolarz, Adam (2009). IPhone Hacks: Pushing the IPhone and IPod Touch Beyond Their Limits. O'Reilly Media, Inc. p. 84. ISBN0-596-51664-9.
- ^Griffiths, Rob (March 23, 2004). 'Colloquy - A polished, easy-to-use IRC client'. Pick of the week. macosxhints.com.
- ^Smykil, Jeff (January 20, 2009). 'Review: Mobile Colloquy for iPhone does IRC right'. Ars Technica
- ^Lavey, Megan (January 22nd 2009). 'First Look: Mobile Colloquy', The Unofficial Apple Weblog
- ^Hoover, Lisa (October 1, 2009). Colloquy Brings IRC to the iPhone, theAppleBlog
- ^Gwilym, Sam (January 26, 2009) 'Colloquy IRC client now available for iPhone'. AppleInsider.
External links[edit]
- Official website (Mobile)
In this world of social media, we've got a lot of chat channels to keep track of. Whether you're checking your Twitter DMs, GChats (Google Talk), Facebook Messenger messages, or iMessages, you can have most of them in one place with a dedicated chat client. These are the best chat apps for Mac.
Messages
Apple's built-in chat client, Messages, makes it seamless for you to chat with anyone that has an iPhone, iPad, or Mac without any effort. You can add SMS and texts messaging from Android or Windows phones to Messages if you have Text Message Forwarding enabled. It gets better, though. Thanks to a little help from Jabber, you can use Messages for dozens of chat channels that use XMPP instant messaging. Wcf file upload limit. It's lost some of its universal appeal over the last few macOS updates, however. Messages no longer works with Facebook, AOL Instant Messenger, or Yahoo. It's also very difficult to get Messages to work with GChat (though not impossible).
- Free - It's already on your Mac!
Adium
Adium is probably the most popular third-party chat client. You can connect it to AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Twitter, MobileMe, IRC, Bonjour, Jabber, plus a few more. It's a great way to keep most (if not all) of your various chat clients in order. I personally don't like the interface of Adium, but sometimes function is more important than looks. Adium has a lot of little features that are really awesome, like initiating encrypted ORT chats, and file transfers. You can't get it in the Mac App Store, but it's free and open source and it's highly rated among Mac users.
- Free - Download now
Trillian
Trillian is another popular chat client that brings together many of your messaging apps into one place, including AOL Instant Messenger, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, Olark, and Twitter. I much prefer Trillian's interface because it reminds me so much of the built-in Messages app. It is, however, slightly less feature-rich unless you go pro. You can get quite a few more business-facing features for about $2 per month. It's a seamless experience for Mac users and my personal favorite third-party client, but I don't use a lot of different chat channels in my daily life. I stick with Google Talk, Facebook, and Twitter. It's perfect for me.
- Free - Download now
YakYak
I haven't personally used YakYak, but it's a big hit with Mac users that only want a Google Talk client. You may have noticed that GTalk compatibility with Messages in macOS High Sierra is difficult, to say the least. If you just want to be able to chat with your Google peeps with a dedicated window on your Mac, YakYak looks like the perfect option. You can upload images, group chat, and more. You have to install it from GitHub, but there are some fairly clear instructions on how to do so if you're saavy with your Mac. It's not a Chrome extension and doesn't rely on Chrome to work. So, if you're anti-Chrome, this apps is for you.
- Free - Download now
How do you chat on Mac?
What is your preferred chat client for bringing together all of your various chat channels? Put your recommendations in the comments and I'll check them out.
macOS Catalina
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