Messaging apps that can make calls – that’s what the young generation’s been missing all these years. Wait, scratch that! It’s what everyone’s been missing. The relevancy of the Voice over IP technology is ever so obvious in the era of 4G internet. Taking into account that practically almost every big city is equipped with wireless internet, Viber is coming out on top among messaging apps for many users. Free calls to anywhere in the world, text messages, video and audio files – let’s pick them apart one by one. Find our Viber review below.
Messenger case file:
- Viber was first launched on the iOS platform in December 2010. Later on the app was ported over to Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry. Viber was initially part of Viber Media, founded by two Israelis.
- In February 2014, it was sold to Japan’s Rakuten for 900 million greenbacks.
The app is available in 29 languages. - 2013 data indicates that Viber’s number of users amounted to more than 200 million.
Before being sold to the Japanese, Viber Media had offices in Minsk, Cyprus and Brest. The offices have closed since the purchase.- The messaging app doesn’t have any ads and developers claim that they plan on keeping it that way
- Viber presented a new service – ViberOut. With it you can make calls to landlines and cell phones anywhere in the world, but not for free. The company presents its call prices as a cheap alternative; however, the rates don’t differ much in that from Skype. In order to top up your account you need Visa, MasterCard, American Express or PayPal.
- The application offers stickers and emojis. There are a few categories of free stickers that can be uploaded to the app, as well as a sticker store.
- Viber has public chats, however, they aren’t conferences. Such chats are available to all app users. Those who subscribe to public chats can see them in their newsfeed, reminds you somewhat of Twitter.
- There’s a desktop version of the application.
- The app gives you the opportunity to make calls to devices that have also installed Viber. You will have to keep in mind that to make a call your internet speed must be at least 1 MB/s.
- You have to use your telephone number if you want to register. Viber will also sync your phone directory contacts. The app then scans to see which of your contacts have also installed the messaging service and marks them with a certain icon next to the contact.
- Unfortunately, the app still doesn’t work with tablets
Viber includes standard backgrounds that can be replaced. You can apply a new background to all chats or select specific conversations and brighten them up.- A chat message cannot be deleted or retracted.
- Viber has push notifications that can be disabled in the settings menu
- Of course, the app can transfer videos, audio files and images.
- Viber can access you device’s camera
- Currently the texting app doesn’t not support .gif animations
- The application isn’t invisible, but does show user online/offline statuses
- Like most social networks, the application supports profile pictures and statuses
- Additionally, Viber can send out invites to your contacts, who haven’t installed the app yet. Only the smartphone owner can do this.
App-related events:
A row broke out around Viber: Lebanese and Egyptian authorities believe that the app’s ‘Israeli roots’ indicate that it is actually used for ‘Zionist spy efforts’. Viber was strictly banned from Egypt’s military forces, while it was completely blocked from internet access in Lebanon. However, most Arabs have found a way around the restrictions.
Summing up, it’s important to stress that Viber’s key advantage was the VoIP tech, allowing users to make in-app calls. All of them are absolutely free and only use up your internet traffic. It was revolutionary back in the day, bringing the app immense popularity.
Moving on to the shortcoming – confidentiality is still a sensitive issue. The app’s protection algorithm or even its existence is still a mystery. Viber also consumes your device’s battery like hotcakes, but this doesn’t scare the loyal users. If you believe in stats, provided by the app’s developers, Viber’s user base grows in giant leaps with every new year.
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