Normal people find discord to be more user friendly than irc
For vertically integrated propriatery closed Discord it's both forbidden and made difficult. There is one alternative and you take it or leave it. Hopefully the latter. There's a reason clients like ripcord never make it.
well, there is another alternative, namely the EU laws forcing interoperability. i don't know if they have passed yet, or how likely it is that they will pass, but i seem to remember a recent announcement of one system going to be interoperable with whatsapp.