What is the best IRC client for the iPhone?

[Gandalf]

Anyone have any recommendations for a good iPhone IRC client? I don't mind paying a few bucks.

Ideally I'd like it to be configurable to auto-connect to specific servers and channels (i.e. irc.bigblueball.com and #bigblueball).

[.Clint]

I like LimeChat the best. In my opinion, it's really the only option for people who care about the interface of the application.

[Gandalf]

Thanks for the advice, Clint. I was impatient and bought Colloquy last night. It was $1.99 vs. LimeChat at $4.99. So far it looks pretty decent though.

I figured that at two bucks, it won't hurt (much) if I decide to switch to LimeChat later.

[fukudome]

If you already have a web browser, just use mibbit.com it's free! It does not provide very much privacy (all text is sent through mibbit-- no direct connections) but if you wanted that you wouldn't be using irc in the first place.

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by fukudome

If you already have a web browser, just use mibbit.com it's free! It does not provide very much privacy (all text is sent through mibbit-- no direct connections) but if you wanted that you wouldn't be using irc in the first place.

Thanks for the tip, fukudome! I've bookmarked it for testing later.

*CORRECTION*

Mibbit.com does not work with the iPhone, as it requires Flash. This might be a solution for PCs (on Windows, OS X or Linux) but NOT on the iPhone.

[ice]

Originally Posted by Jeff

Thanks for the tip, fukudome! I've bookmarked it for testing later.

*CORRECTION*

Mibbit.com does not work with the iPhone, as it requires Flash. This might be a solution for PCs (on Windows, OS X or Linux) but NOT on the iPhone.

Yes, mibbit does work with the iPhone, and no it does not require flash. The Apple Web apps even recommends mibbit: Apple - Web apps - Mibbit IRC Client

I do not work for mibbit.

Maybe you were in a hurry or maybe the mibbit frontpage is poorly designed (and includes flash content) but for what ever reason you didn't see a link that said: "Start chatting now>>"

If you did you would have been led to Mibbit.com Webchat client

From here you can connect to known irc networks (or any irc network/server using the "Server" link) using SSL-connections or regular connections.

Like meebo, it is fully dependent on your browser supporting javascript. Unlike meebo it does not use libpurple (from pidgin) as a backend.

[Jeff]

Thanks for the clarification, ice, and welcome to BigBlueBall. You are indeed correct. Mibbit does work on an iPhone, although the UI is not optimized for the small screen.

The homepage is misleading, because they have big Flash demo right in the middle of the page and on the iPhone, it says "Flash 9 Required..." I mistakenly assumed this meant Flash was required to use Mibbit to connect to IRC.

You can't beat the price!

[kelseyc]

I didn't even know that there were IRL clients for the iphone! There is truly an app for everything! Do they have IRC clients for the Pre yet?