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Viber Challenges WhatsApp and WeChat by Adding Simple VoIP Capabilities

June 06, 2014

By Miguel Leiva-Gomez, Business VoIP Contributor

We're approaching an era in today's mobile climate where VoIP and messaging applications are becoming more ubiquitous. The world wants to stay connected, and it wants to do this without having to pay a hefty price. Wherever there's a demand, there will always be a startup willing to fulfill it, so the likes of WeChat and WhatsApp came about and offered free messaging for everyone using their services.


But there's one thing that's missing from this entire experience, and that's where Viber fills in. Viber's platform allows full-blown voice calling between international users, as long as their phones are running the app. Also, if a recipient phone doesn't have Viber, users can use a service called Viber Out, which allows them to call any number for a low per-minute fee.

What distinguishes this platform, however, is its ability to run not only on desktops, but on almost any operating system in existence. They've even gone through the trouble of developing a Modern-style Windows 8 app, a BlackBerry app, and a version on Bada and Symbian. These folks want you installing them no matter what you're using.

It's not very often that we see an application developer put an app on every platform available (although I did notice they don't have a version for Tizen). This has to do with the obvious cost in terms of hours spent in development and payment to the developers. However, Viber's developers pulled it off, and we're all happy for it. Compared to WhatsApp and WeChat, it seems to have pulled itself together into an impressively simple interface.

Although some claim that Viber is more secure, there seems to be very little said about its security on its own website. Regardless, it seems like Viber is here to stay and poses a significant challenge to the incumbent platforms for messaging and communication.




Edited by Alisen Downey

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