Frequently Asked Questions

In SemaBuzz, every character you type is streamed to the other person the instant you press the key — no send button, no waiting. They see each letter appear in real time, as if watching you write. This is called live text or real-time text (RTT). Most modern chat apps replaced this with a “typing…” indicator in the 1990s. SemaBuzz brought it back.

A typing indicator only tells you the other person is composing a message. SemaBuzz streams the actual characters as they are pressed — you read the message as it is written, letter by letter, not after they hit send. The conversation feels immediate, more like talking side by side than exchanging notes.

URL Walk is a feature inspired by PowWow (1996), one of the original live-text chat apps. When you paste or type a URL in the chat, it appears as a clickable link on the other person’s screen character by character — live, just like the rest of your text. One click and it opens in their browser. PowWow called this “URL Walk” — leading your friend through the web together in real time. SemaBuzz keeps the name and the spirit alive.

Yes — ICQ and early AIM had live character streaming in the late 1990s, and it was beloved. They removed it over time as mobile messaging took over and bandwidth was a concern. Real-Time Text (RTT) also exists as an accessibility standard (RFC 4103) built into iPhones and some Android phones, but it's buried in accessibility settings and almost nobody knows it's there. SemaBuzz makes live text the entire point of the app, not an afterthought.

The filament is a live waveform indicator at the bottom of the chat window. It pulses in response to keystroke velocity — fast, excited typing produces a strong pulse while slow, deliberate words produce a quieter one. It gives you a sense of the other person's energy and pace in real time, even before you've read the words. Pro users can unlock additional filament styles (Pulse and Wave) in addition to the default Flicker.

SemaBuzz is a live character-by-character 1:1 chat app for Windows. Every letter you type streams to the other person in real time — no send button, no waiting.

No. SemaBuzz requires no sign-up, no email, and no password. You start a session, share a code, and chat.

Yes — the core app is free. A Pro upgrade is available as an in-app purchase that unlocks extra themes (including Neon, Matrix, Blood Moon, Chrome, Retro '95, and more), advanced filament styles, a custom default listen port, and custom relay support embedded in session tokens.

SemaBuzz is 1:1 only — just you and one other person. No group chats, no noise.

Buzz shakes the other person's window with a quick animation to grab their attention — useful when they've gone quiet or you need them to look at the screen now.

No. SemaBuzz is intentionally session-only. When the session ends, the conversation is gone. Nothing is saved on any server.

Your messages are encrypted on your device using ECDH P-256 key exchange and AES-256-GCM before they leave your machine. SemaBuzz first tries to establish a direct peer-to-peer UDP connection — if that succeeds, your traffic never touches the relay server at all. If a direct path isn't possible, the relay is used as a fallback tunnel, but it only forwards ciphertext it cannot read. No messages are stored on any server.

Messages are always encrypted in transit using AES-256-GCM. On most home and office networks SemaBuzz connects peer-to-peer — the relay isn't in the data path at all. On restricted networks the relay forwards ciphertext it cannot decrypt. Note that the key exchange is unauthenticated, so SemaBuzz cannot verify the identity of who you're chatting with — only share your session token with people you trust.

A relay server is used to let the two peers find each other. Once connected, SemaBuzz immediately attempts a direct peer-to-peer UDP link using STUN hole-punching. If that succeeds — which it does on most home and office networks — the relay drops out and traffic flows directly between the two machines. If a direct path isn't possible (symmetric NAT, CGNAT, or restrictive firewall), the relay stays as an encrypted fallback tunnel.

STUN (Session Traversal Utilities for NAT) is a standard technique used by video-call and VoIP apps to punch through NAT routers so two devices can communicate directly. Each peer discovers their external IP and port from a public STUN server, then both send UDP packets at each other simultaneously to open a path through both routers. SemaBuzz does this automatically every time you connect.

No. The relay is a blind pass-through — it forwards encrypted packets between peers but has no access to the decryption keys and cannot read message content. When a direct peer-to-peer path is established, the relay drops out entirely.

Yes. In Settings you can point SemaBuzz at any compatible relay. With a Pro licence, the custom relay URL is encoded into the session token — so whoever dials in using that token is automatically routed through your relay with no manual configuration on their end. You can download the relay binary free from the self-host section.

The Windows app is available for download. See the home page for the latest release.

SemaBuzz requires Windows 10 version 1809 (October 2018 Update) or later, or Windows 11.

Yes. The built-in emoticon picker has 7 categories — faces, gestures, symbols, animals & nature, food & drink, travel & places, activities, and objects — covering 100+ emoji. Click the smiley icon next to the input bar, or press the shortcut shown in the tooltip. No copy-pasting from a browser required.

When someone dials your session token, a prompt appears asking you to Accept or Deny. Accept lets them in and starts the encrypted session. Deny sends them a polite “not available” notice. Your session, your call — nobody enters without your approval.

If you're hosting and your peer disconnects, SemaBuzz automatically resumes listening so new incoming connections can reach you without restarting the app. You don't need to do anything — just wait for them to reconnect.

The free app includes the Obsidian theme (dark amber on black). Pro unlocks 15 additional themes: Neon, Matrix, Blood Moon, Arctic, Sepia, Midnight, Sunset, Rose, Violet, Emerald, Steel, Forest, Chrome, MutedTerminal, and Retro '95 (the classic Windows 95/98 silver-and-navy look). Each theme colours the entire app including the window chrome.

Beyond themes: advanced filament styles (Pulse and Wave), a configurable default listen port, and custom relay URLs embedded in session tokens so guests auto-connect through your relay without any manual setup.

Download the single-binary relay from the self-host section. On Windows, double-click the .exe or run it from PowerShell. On Linux, mark it executable (chmod +x SemaBuzz-Relay-Linux) and run it. The relay starts on port 7171 by default. Override with --port 8080 or set the PORT environment variable.

Yes. The relay forwards encrypted packets between peers without reading or storing their content. IP addresses are held in memory only for the duration of the session — nothing is written to disk.

Open Settings in the Windows app and enter your relay's WebSocket URL (e.g. wss://your-server.com/relay). With a Pro licence, this URL is baked into any session token you create — your guest connects through your relay automatically just by entering the token.