IRC (an acronym for Internet Relay Chat) is a form of real-time Internet text messaging or conferencing.
IRC was created to support group communication in online forums, called channels, but also features private messages and data transfers.
Nowadays, clients designed solely for IRC have become very rare, as more and more messaging clients have integrated the IRC protocol within their package.
Users will always be required to choose a nickname that will be displayed whenever they connect to an IRC channel.