<p>On <a href="https://hackerpublicradio.org/eps.php?id=2162">HPR #2162</a> I mentioned that I'm connecting to freenode IRC using <a href="https://riot.im/">Riot</a> and <a href="https://matrix.org/">Matrix</a>. Here I explain a bit of background to why, what Matrix is, and why you should use it too.</p>
<h3 id="quick-quick-version">Quick-quick version</h3>
<p>Just go to <a href="https://riot.im/app/#/room/#freenode_#oggcastplanet:matrix.org" class="uri">https://riot.im/app/#/room/#freenode_#oggcastplanet:matrix.org</a>, click <em>Join</em> and you're on the channel! If you register a user there (or maybe on another instance, like <a href="https://social.heldscal.la/lambadalambda">@lambadalambda's</a> <a href="https://matrix.heldscal.la/" class="uri">https://matrix.heldscal.la/</a>), you can then log in with the same username and password in the Android app and see all your joined channels there.</p>
<p>Correction to audio: <strong>Riot is on F-Droid</strong>. For some reason I couldn't find it at the time, even though <a href="https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=riot&amp;fdid=im.vector.alpha">it's clearly there</a>, so I'm currently using the version from the Google Play Store. I hear that battery use may be an issue if you're independent from the evil GOOG.</p>
<h3 id="alternatives">Alternatives</h3>
<p>Other ways of connecting to IRC over flaky or intermittent connections without losing context:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://znc.in/">ZNC</a></li>
<li>In particular, check out this <a href="https://dague.net/2014/09/13/my-irc-proxy-setup/">pretty elaborate ZNC-on-ZNC setup</a> to solve the issue with having multiple devices that all want an independent scrollback buffer. I was just about considering setting up something like this when I discovered the Matrix bridge instead.</li>
<li>One colleague of mine uses <a href="https://quassel-irc.org/">Quassel</a> and loves it.</li>
<li>Another colleague uses <a href="https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=irc&amp;fdid=org.woltage.irssiconnectbot">irssi ConnectBot</a> or something similar and can't understand why anybody would want anything else.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="criticism">Criticism</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://identi.ca/mray/note/eMjlxfjETtSFOwnKHBgD3Q">Matrix is a big fat NIH, why not just use XMPP?</a> (short pump.io discussion)</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="fodder-for-further-hpr-episodes">Fodder for further HPR episodes</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://microca.st/clacke/comment/l11mIRDiQWikamj6hvp1wA">Man there are a lot of Slack alternatives out there</a>. (pump.io post)</li>
</ul>
