One of the primary goals behind Colloquy was to create an IRC, SILC and ICB client with Mac OS X visuals.

One text manipulation supported by Colloquy is the use of colors as used by mIRC; with the primary colors being: White, Black, Navy, Forest, Red, Maroon, Purple, Orange, Yellow, Green, Teal, Cyan, Blue, Magenta, Grey, and Ash.

Colloquy is built on Apple's WebKit engine and supports customizable message views called "styles" using a combination of XSLT, HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

The software also supports a wide array of plugins that enable customization of the application and integration with other aspects of the Mac OS X environment.

[5] The Colloquy iPhone app was favorably reviewed on Ars Technica,[6] The Unofficial Apple Weblog,[7] GigaOM,[8] and AppleInsider.