A large portion of the Monero community communicates through IRC channels. But you don't need to go back to the '90s to join the discussion!
Matrix offers the best of all worlds for many people. It's free, open source, federated, nicely designed, and even communicates with IRC channels and users.
The Monero Core Team has decided to host their own Matrix server. When you create a Matrix account, you can communicate with community members on both Matrix and Freenode IRC, including accounts on other Matrix servers like matrix.org. We strongly recommend you create an account and join us!
To help get you started, we have created guides for joining with Element (a common open-source and free Matrix app) on Web, Android, and Apple iOS. You can join with your own preferred application if you're an expert 🙂
Easy Guides
Direct Link for Pros
Homeserver: https://matrix.monero.social
(if that doesn't work, try https://monero.social)
Simpler Discord Link
Does making the leap to Matrix seem too intimidating? You can still communicate in many of the popular channels with our Discord server. In these channels, you can talk with other people in these channels who are using Matrix and Freenode IRC.
Monero Discord: https://discord.gg/NV92yD5eaJ