Conversation 1.0 is a free new IRC (Internet Relay Chat) client for Mac OS X (10.2 and higher) users. It’s available for download from the Web site.
IRC is an instant messaging (IM) protocol based on open standards, unlike many other IM networks. IRC can be complicated, often requiring the use of text commands. The makers of Conversation promise to change that, however: Conversation boasts the ability to chat in channels via a Mac-like interface that requires no text commands.
In the contact window, you can see who’s online. If you want to start a conversation, double click a person’s icon. Switch to the Channel tab, and you can see which chatrooms are busy. The tooltip displays the number of users and the topic; double click and you join the channel.
Each user is automatically assigned a color; Web sites and addresses are automatically turned into hyperlinks. With Conversation, you can click on the loudspeaker icon, and your Mac will speak the conversation as people talk. Channel topics, as well as users joining and leaving, appear in grey.
You can drag users and channels to your Contact window to add them to your favorites. Also, if you’re a channel operator, you can drag a user from a chatroom or from your contact list to another chatroom to invite them in the channel.