@miah @SuperDicq
Message history is a hard requirement for me and most of my friends. Not only to keep up with chat while you've been away, but also to find something that has been discussed a long time ago.

Also, think of replies. Multiline messages. Media sharing. Not having to set up basic moderation functionality through bots. Not having to run a daemon just to stay joined in the chat. Having direct messages. Having direct messages that get delivered while you're offline. Custom emojis. Shared set of custom emojis for all chat participants. Contacts list. And yeah, an actual federation would be very appreciated.

It's easier to use IRC through an XMPP or Matrix bridge because even its clients are better at IRC than whatever IRC clients we have.

I'm not defending proprietary protocols and services, but IRC as a thing from 1970 just sucks. XMPP, also an open standard, does the half what I mentioned above. Matrix, an open standard too, while being pain in the ass UX-wise, does the other part.