Indeed! Wonder why Jarkko Oikarinen (and others) semi-abandoned the project. With a little bit of a makeover it could have rivalled Slack, Whatsapp etc
Well, there's the matrix protocol (and separate apps like Riot.im, Quaternion, pattle, etc.)...which does incorporate - at least at a high level - some similar concepts to IRC, though with modern adaptations like encryption, etc.
