Searchable (history) and notifiable. Really that's all IRC would need right now to catch up. And a dead simple app, kik was actually pretty close, groups were even named #groups. All other features are gimmicks.
I'm not sure that response is as helpful as you think it is. I'm pretty sure irc has searchable public groups fwiw. Pretty sure irc is text based group chat.
If there's something that kik gets you beyond irc it's completely unclear from this discussion what that might be. Whether or not I'm delusional, and I sure I am as delusional as anyone about certain things, your response isn't useful, informative, helpful or kind. But YMMV.
I mean, they had a shiny app, marketing, and I'd guess similar features the young target group appreciated. A lot of things are like IRC but preferred by the new generation. People don't often select apps based on their backend stack.
