Chat room

A chat room is an online forum where people can chat (talk by broadcasting short messages to people on the same forum) or write messages to each other in real time. Sometimes these forums are moderated (where only certain people are allowed to speak), but usually not.

Chat systems include Internet Relay Chat (where rooms are called "channels"), Jabber, and several proprietary systems implemented on the Microsoft Windows and Java platforms.

Lesser known is the UNIX based talker and the French Minitel.

Chat rooms are often confused with discussion groups, which are similar but do not take place in real time and are usually run over the World Wide Web.