HexDroid IRC

boxlabs

About this app

HexDroid is a clean, fast IRC client built for modern Android. Connect to your favourite networks, chat with friends and communities, and stay on top of every mention - all from a Material Design interface built for mobile.

Connect anywhere
• Connect to multiple IRC networks simultaneously, each with independent settings
• Auto-connect and auto-join on startup
• Bouncer support: ZNC and soju (including BOUNCER BIND for soju multi-network)
• Always Connected mode keeps your session alive in the background using a foreground service

Security and authentication
• TLS/SSL on every connection by default
• SASL authentication - PLAIN (TLS-only), EXTERNAL (client certificates), and SCRAM-SHA-256
• Trust-On-First-Use certificate pinning for self-signed certificates
• Passwords stored encrypted using Android Keystore AES-GCM

Modern IRC (IRCv3)
• Message replies with inline quote previews — swipe any message to reply
• Typing indicators in channels and private messages
• Chat history replay on supporting servers
• Message reactions, read markers, account tags, and more
• Works with Libera.Chat, Ergo, soju, ZNC, and other modern networks and bouncers

Notifications
• Instant alerts when your nick is mentioned
• Reply directly from the notification drawer without opening the app
• DCC file request notifications

DCC file transfers
• Send and receive files with full DCC support
• Passive/reverse DCC and Secure DCC (SSEND/SCHAT) for TLS-encrypted transfers
• Dedicated Transfers screen with progress tracking
• DCC Chat support
• Off by default - enable in settings when you need it

Full chat experience
• /Command and Nick @mention autocomplete
• Colour-coded nicks with 45 distinct hues, consistent across messages and the sidebar
• Inline image and video link previews
• ASCII art rendering with auto-sized MOTD display
• mIRC and ANSI colour codes
• Character formatting toolbar (bold, italic, colour)
• In-buffer search with /find and /gfind
• Jump-to-unread marker
• Channel op tools and IRCop tools (when you have +o)
• Ignore list with nick and hostmask support

Settings and customisation
• Per-network character encoding: auto-detect, UTF-8, windows-1251, and others
• Custom nick colour with colour picker
• Post-connect commands per network
• Network settings backup and restore to JSON
• Drag-and-drop network ordering

Logging
• Optional chat logging stored only on your device
• Choose between internal storage or any folder via the system file picker

Privacy
• No ads
• No analytics SDKs
• No tracking of any kind
• Your messages and credentials are sent only to the IRC servers you choose to connect to

Permissions explained
• Internet / Network state - connect to IRC servers
• Notifications - alert you to highlights and mentions
• Foreground service - optional, only used when Always Connected is enabled
• Wake lock - optional, prevents sleep to keep your connection active with Always Connected

Notes
• IRCv3 features depend on server support and vary by network
• Background connectivity may vary depending on device and battery optimisation settings

Free and open source, licensed under GPLv3.

Support: irc.afternet.org #HexDroid
Privacy policy: hexdroid.boxlabs.uk/privacy

Ratings and reviews

amazing app. no ads or spam and it's free. if you keep it clean like this it's the best app for irc chatting nostalgia!

exactly what I need. only issue I've ran into is I have to reconnect sometimes after a certain period of time. other than that, it's good. would like to see some new features later.

Brilliant, even connects to ZNC/Bouncers toi, much better than the other one I tried, Thanks

What’s new

Add Android 17 and Android TV support
Improve art detection with an option to disable it completely.
Improve auto reconnection and selecting of text in input box.
Fix bug where tapping a highlight would sometimes not scroll to the message.
Fix bug where the reply fallback wouldn't show in private messages.