TapChat is mobile IRC done right

No it isn't.

- The only way to stop receiving notifications is to uninstall the app, there is no disconnect/detach option.

- It doesn't have support for identd (necessary for old ZNC bouncers, and for some bitlbee builds).

- The UI is very young, not comfortable to use, no easy channel switchers, etc.

- No buddy/friends list.

- Install fails in "supported' nodejs versions, almost works only on v.0.8.0

- Complete lack of settings, including what I said about the most basic thing, connecting/disconnecting.

I had a lot of hopes for this, I use IRC with a few servers and a personal IM gateway (bitlbee), and for now I'm using AndChat which is a very good Android client but the permanent connection makes the battery drain very fast.

After having trouble getting the server up (nodejs version and such), I had trouble setting up the servers to connect to, as the settings for creating a new server were different with those of editing the new server, and the password was not even remembered when creating one, so I had to put it again after creating it in the edit mode.

But still, no support for identd had me update ZNC and bitlbee to support only server password with "user:pass".

After I finally got it up, for the first few minutes it was a dream, notifications came very fast, the app was good looking. And then I tried detaching from the server, no way to do that, after I kill the process, notifications still came up, and after "logging off" from my server I would still get them!!!! only way to stop was uninstalling the App.

Which I did. Hopefully I'll reinstall it when these problems get fixed.

This has been supported with Colloquy on iOS for years — even using ZNC as the bouncer with the Colloquy plugin. I'm glad there's now a solution for Android that looks like it might be approaching the same awesomeness level!

More info: http://colloquy.info/project/wiki/PushNotifications

I use irssi on the server with Irssi ConnectBot https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.woltage.ir... and Hacker's Keyboard https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketwork... . Why is SSHing from a phone no fun? Honest question, what am I missing out on?

I don't know about its Node.JS implementation, but I think TapChat works great as a lightweight client to IRCCloud[1] (which is kind of like a bouncer on its own and don't have much option to configure to begin with). It simply Just Works™.

Some customization and a little bit of visual improvement for message would be welcome, though. Especially colors, I understand they want to keep it monochrome-ish, but trying to find message burying with joins/leaves is not really fun since everything looked the same. I wish it has IRCCloud-like join/leave grouping.

[1]: https://irccloud.com/

I would pay for this if I could use my own ZNC bouncer.

Something I've wanted to build someday but never did is exactly this but for xmpp, etc. I'd love to have a central place with my chat logs, etc.

Someone go build it, please!

I'm curious about why you need a specific bouncer for this. I can't see any doc about what it does that usual bouncers don't do (except for "[existing bouncers] have many limitations such as not being able to sync private conversations across all of your devices", which I don't get: the bip bouncer which I use syncs private conversations in a very reasonable way).

I sent you an email and this is just me being impatient but.. unavailable in the android market for Chinese users?

Is this (irc bouncer) the sort of thing that should work with Jabber? Keep the parts interchangeable?

I'm so glad there's finally a good option for Android users!