If you work as a part of a team, you need some way to effectively communicate with your comrades.
Business messaging apps are helpful in that they encourage you to take those interactions out of email, which can be a real productivity killer.
SpiderOak's Semaphor offers well-designed desktop and mobile apps as well as encrypted messaging, but it lacks robust customization options and some standard organizational tools.
Editors' Choices Slack and Microsoft Teams offer more features, such as audio and video calls and app integrations, at a lower cost.
Pricing and Platforms
Semaphor charges $10 per person per month, but the first five users are free.
A six-person team would, for example, only cost $10 per month.
All teams (regardless of size) get unlimited channels, messages, and file sharing.
I appreciate that you do not need to provide a credit card to sign up for the free version.
That said, once you get beyond the first few people, Semaphor is expensive for a business messaging app.
Editors' Choice Slack (Visit Site at Slack) , for example, only charges $8 per person per month for its Standard account tier.
Others are even cheaper.
Flock costs $3 per user per month and Zoho Cliq cost even less, at $2 per person per month.
Although these services may restrict some features to higher-tier price plans, they all include audio and video call capabilities, which Semaphor does not.
Keep in mind, too, that your team can use the chat capabilities of existing services instead of signing up for a stand-alone business chat app.
Microsoft Teams, for example, comes standard with Office 365.
Workplace by Facebook also integrates chat capabilities, though this is a small part of the service's social experience.
You can download Semaphor on Linux, macOS, or Windows, as well as on Android and iOS devices, though unlike many of its competitors it does not offer a web interface.
For testing purposes, I installed Semaphor on my Google Pixel and Nexus 5X running Android 8.0, iPhone 8 running iOS 11, and a Windows 10 laptop.
The majority of this review pertains to my experience with Semaphor on Android and Windows.
Getting Started and Security
Semaphor is easy to install on all platforms.
Simply enter an email address and submit the corresponding confirmation code.
You may recognize the SpiderOak name from its online backup software, SpiderOak ONE.
If not, the important thing to know about SpiderOak is its commitment to privacy and security, as summed up by its No Knowledge policy.
SpiderOak uses end-to-end encryption and private blockchain technology to protect your data.
In other words, SpiderOak employees cannot access your data (even if compelled by a third party), since your messages are encrypted before they leave your device and can only be accessed by you or your team.
SpiderOak can, however, see certain information about your account, such as your username (or email address), the names of all the Teams to which you belong, the usernames or email addresses of all members of your teams, and any information you enter into your account profile.
SpiderOak cannot see the names of your Channels, the content of any messages or attachments, or the recovery key for your account.
For a complete list of what the company can and cannot see, visit SpiderOak's related support page.
SpiderOak gets points for transparency.
Another security measure in Semaphor is its recovery key option.
The recovery key is the only way to recover your data if you lose access to your devices or your account.
SpiderOak generates this key for you; it's a string of seven random words separated by spaces.
It is imperative that you store this key in a safe place since there is no way for you or SpiderOak to recover it.
SpiderOak gives you several opportunities to copy the key, so it is your own fault if you neglect to write it down.
Keep in mind that uninstalling the Semaphor application from Linux, macOS, or Windows does not delete your local profile data.
When you reinstall Semaphor, it retrieves all of your old messages and channels.
SpiderOak details the process for removing an account from a device in its support section.
I followed these instructions and can confirm that the process removed all the account data from my test computer.
Since Semaphor does not offer a web interface of any kind, you can only recover deleted data via the recovery key method on a local device.
In testing, Semaphor successfully restored all my conversations and Channels once I entered this key.
I would like to see the option for admins to generate compliance reports for either external or internal requests.
Since teams already have access to this data, this would seem not to breach SpiderOak ONE's No Knowledge policy.
The recovery key is also a secondary way to add a device to your account.
Alternatively, you can add a device by scanning a QR code that SpiderOak generates within an already-configured account.
This process is quick and efficient, and I had no trouble adding either my Nexus 5X or iPhone 8 test devices to my account.
Desktop Interface
Semaphor fits right in with the aesthetic of the SpiderOak ONE online backup client, sporting a primarily white and gray interface with blue accents.
It's clean and minimalist, but I wish you could change the theme as you can with competitors such as Slack and Glip by RingCentral.
At the very least, there should be a dark mode.
Communication among team members, especially the more informal messages that business messaging apps encourage, can happen at any time of day or night.
Many people find a dark interface much easier to read at odd hours.
That said, you can add a profile picture and a short biography.
One potential problem is that elements and messages are not very compact, so the interface can easily become overcrowded.
Navigation is mostly quick with smooth animations, although the layout is occasionally confusing and it can take a few seconds for the app to launch or transition to a new area.
For example, sometimes you click on a hamburger-style menu icon to navigate backward and other times you get an arrow.
Buttons for managing Teams, Channels, and Direct Messages are also visually disjointed.
You click on a plus button inside a square to create or join a team.
But to create a new Channel or start a Direct Message, the icon is a speech bubble with a plus sign.
Further, right-clicking only works in certain places.
You can right-click on a message to delete or copy it, but this interaction does not work anywhere else in the interface.
For example, it would be useful to get context menus when right-clicking on a Channel or team member.
Across the top, Semaphor displays standard menu options, but there's no need to use them since you can find the same functionality throughout the interface.
It also lists redundant options in some places.
For example, the Preferences option under both the Edit and Tools headers opens the same right-hand menu.
The main view is broken into two panes: a left-hand menu for navigation and the chat area.
At the top-most level, you can view all the teams to which you belong.
Click on one of those and Semaphor shows all the team's associated channels and any ongoing direct message conversations.
Contextual options and user profile information expand in a right-hand menu.
Teams, Channels, and Direct Messages
As with most business messaging apps, Semaphor breaks everything down in terms of Teams and Channels.
It's up to you to draw the organizational lines.
For example, if you are a small business and everyone does multiple jobs, it makes sense that everyone should be on the same team.
For larger businesses, you should instead create multiple teams for people who work in similar areas of the company and add other members as the need arises.
Keep in mind that Semaphor does not currently allow you to delete a team, but you can simply remove everyone from a team and then leave yourself, if you no longer want anyone to have access.
That method only works if you are an admin, of course.
When you create a team, you can decide whether to give members the ability to create their own channels, as well as who can delete messages.
You can also determine which channels new users automatically join and choose which domains can send auto-join requests.
One level below Teams is Channels.
You can use Channels as a way to organize and consolidate all discussions related to a certain project or for general topics that pertain to scattered members of an organization.
Unfortunately, you can't favorite those you frequently visit; you can only sort by name and recent.
If you click on an individual's profile icon in a Channel (or click the option to view Channel members in the right-hand options menu), you can give them admin privileges (for the Channel), ban them (from the Channel), remove them from the Team, or send them a private message.
At the lowest level, you can message individual members of your Team directly.
Direct Messages occur at the team level, so if someone isn't part of your team, you may need to (gasp) have that chat face to face.
Or you could just invite the person to your team.
In any case, one other limitation is that you can only send a direct message to one person at a time; ad-hoc group chats have no place in Semaphor.
You could just create a separate channel, and then add the people you want, but that seems a bit over the top for a conversation that may only last a few minutes.
Semaphor lets you send attachments in regular channels or direct conversations.
File sizes are limited to 2GB, but Semaphor does not impose restrictions on file types.
Still, Semaphor lacks some of the more advanced options that Slack offers.
For example, you can attach files from Google Drive or format your responses as a post, as well as a code or text snippet.
You can also forget about the collaborative editing features found in Glip by RingCentral.
Semaphor for Mobile
Semaphor's mobile apps mirror the desktop app's look and features.
The design uses the same blue and white color scheme, but again, there is no dark mode option.
You can manage teams and channels in the same way.
Navigation is smooth, and I did not experience any lag or stutters.
One drawback, however, is that the mobile apps do not support system-level push notifications.
Individual channels within the app show a badge count and a banner slides across the top if you get a direct message.
All of that happens entirely within the app.
One difference is that Semaphor's mobile apps only let you attach a photo or take a new one to share in the chat.
This is disappointing since many people store documents, videos, and audio files on their devices as well.
Integration with any of the cloud storage services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive would also be useful.
Semaphor does not prevent you from taking a screenshot of the app, which could be a security concern for people who don't want any other record of their conversations.
What's Missing?
Semaphor is missing quite a few higher-level features, the most notable of which is support for integrations.
Rival messaging software such as Flock support tons of extra software and features and are compatible with Zapier and IFTTT.
Slack, Microsoft Teams, Stride, and Glip by Ring Central all offer extensive built-in support for other apps and services that businesses and teams of all sizes frequently use.
Semaphor also lacks audio and video calling capabilities, as well as Whiteboard features.
Most top-tier business messaging apps allow you to communicate and collaborate with your coworkers in more ways than just text chats.
Atlassian Stride, for example, supports video and audio calls, as well as screen sharing with multiple people.
Secure, but Simple
Teams of all sizes and in all industries can be more productive if they use the right business messaging app to escape the problems inherent with email.
They encourage better communication and more of it.
SpiderOak's Semaphor is a team-messaging app with a focus on security and privacy.
It has a snappy, consistent interface and solid mobile apps as well.
It's pricey after the first few members, however, and its main functional drawback is that it simply doesn't offer as many features as competitors, such as support for extensions, customization options, and video or voice calling.
Editors' Choices Slack and Microsoft Teams are more flexible and customizable and may be a better fit for your organization's needs.
