Yes! I'm an active IRC user for professional open source work (and personal projects) for the last 10-ish years. And still going strong.
What many people say IRC "lack" in comparison with Slack (or whatever new-fangled tool of the day is) are its strengths. What I value in IRC: lack of clutter, simplicity, bloat-freeness, open standard, and not least of all, blazing fast, among others.
Sure, IRC has its limitations, and is not suitable in certain scenarios. But is still shines brightly when it comes to distraction-free, text-based communication.
I also hope Matrix takes off. I have been using riot.im for some time to check if it could replace the many chat applications one is forced to use these days (FBMessenger, Slack, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc).
It does have its quirks but I'm finding the ability of having e2e-encrypted chat with multiple parties in a way I can move across devices quite useful. It also does support some more modern features like sharing pictures, files, and emojis without major issues.
What many people say IRC "lack" in comparison with Slack (or whatever new-fangled tool of the day is) are its strengths. What I value in IRC: lack of clutter, simplicity, bloat-freeness, open standard, and not least of all, blazing fast, among others.
Sure, IRC has its limitations, and is not suitable in certain scenarios. But is still shines brightly when it comes to distraction-free, text-based communication.
(I'm also hoping the Matrix protocol takes off.)
Obligatory XKCD reference:
https://xkcd.com/1782/ -- Team Chat