Viber is finally getting group calling, along with a slick new design

By Christian de Looper February 4, 2019

Instant-messaging app Viber may not be as widely used as it once was, but the company has made it a mission in the new year to change that. It announced Viber 10, a redesign of the Viber app that’s aimed at enhancing the user experience and speeding up the messaging process.

The new design is pretty radically different than the previous version of Viber, and it looks a lot more modern too. According to Viber, the focus was on implementing simple navigation of the Viber app and improving access to things like private and group chats, communities, chatbots, and so on. There’s also a new “Calls” screen where users can find their most recent calls, access contacts, and more.

For the uninitiated, Viber is essentially a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calling and messaging app that works over the web, and allows users to call and message each other no matter where they are in the world. It’s essentially a combination of WhatsApp and FaceTime, and it can be found on both Android and iOS.

The new Viber isn’t just a redesign. Viber is also giving the app a number of new features, including hidden-number chats. In these chats, Viber users can communicate with others in Viber Communities without having to exchange their phone numbers. That makes Viber a lot more like a social media network, and ensures that users remain safer while communicating online. Group Calls have also been added to Viber. Of course, this move comes shortly after Apple launched Group FaceTime — however Viber currently only supports groups of up to five, and only in voice calls, not video calls.

“The launch of Viber 10 comes after intensive user research and testing that perfects and simplifies the communication opportunities for the many people who use Viber globally,” says Djamel Agaoua, CEO of Viber. “At Viber, we are all driven by our core mission to make our product faster, simpler, and safer.”

The Viber redesign will roll out to users over the next few days. If you don’t already have Viber and want it, you can download it from Google Play or iOS.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Christian de Looper

Contributor

Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…

Mobile

It looks like the iPhone 16 will get a big design upgrade

Someone holding the Natural Titanium iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Following the release of the iPhone 15 Pro series, several early adopters reported overheating issues. Apple later confirmed that the problem was caused by a software bug in iOS 17, which affected some owners of the phones. The company quickly resolved the issue with the release of iOS 17.0.3 and never acknowledged that hardware played a role in the overheating. Fast-forward to the present, and it now looks like Apple plans to make hardware changes on the iPhone 16 that would make the 2024 handsets less likely to overheat.

According to Apple prototype collector Kosutami, Apple will make two changes to the next round of iPhones. On X, formerly Twitter, they note: "Apple is actively working on graphene thermal system of iPhone 16 Series to solve the heating problem existing before. And the battery of Pro series would change to metal shell, for the same reason."

Mobile

It’s finally happening — your iPhone is getting RCS in 2024

iMessage on an iPhone 14 Pro Max, plus iMessage on an Android phone using the Beeper app.

Today is a day I truly didn't expect would ever happen. On November 16, 2023, Apple officially confirmed that RCS texting is finally coming to the iPhone in 2024.

Yes, you read that correctly. Starting "later next year," Apple will add RCS support to the iPhone. In other words, if you have an Android phone and are texting someone with an iPhone, you'll be able to text each other over RCS instead of SMS. That means you'll get many iMessage-like features such as typing indicators, read receipts, higher-resolution photo/video sharing, etc.

Mobile

One of our favorite Android phones just got its own iMessage app

Nothing Chats app on a. phone.

Nothing is trying to bridge the great blue/green bubble divide for Android users of iMessage. This is not a personal crusade to shatter walls and open windows, as much as Nothing CEO Carl Pei would want you to believe that. Instead, Nothing is piggybacking on tech created by New York-based startup Sunbird.
Technically, the Sunbird app can be installed on any Android phone and it features a blue bubble for all iMessage text exchanges involving an Android phone. No more green bubble shame that could get you kicked out of groups for disrupting the harmony or even slim your dating chances. That’s how bad it is!
Nothing is adopting the Sunbird tech and bundling it as its very own app under the name Nothing Chats. But here’s the fun part. The app only works on the Nothing Phone 2 and not the Nothing Phone 1. And this life-altering boon will only be bestowed upon users in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., or the EU bloc.

The app is currently in the beta phase, which means some iMessage features will be broken or absent. Once the app is downloaded on your Nothing Phone 2, you can create a new account or sign up with your Apple ID to get going with blue bubble texts.
Just in case you’re concerned, all messages will be end-to-end encrypted, and the app doesn’t collect any personal information, such as the users’ geographic location or the texts exchanged. Right now, Sunbird and Nothing have not detailed the iMessage features and those that are broken.
We made iMessage for Android...
The Washington Post tried an early version of the Nothing Chats app and notes that the blue bubble system works just fine. Texts between an Android device and an iPhone are neatly arranged in a thread, and multimedia exchange is also allowed at full quality.
However, message editing is apparently not available, and a double-tap gesture for responding with a quick emoji doesn’t work either. We don’t know when these features will be added. Nothing's Sunbird-based app will expand to other territories soon.
Sunbird, however, offers a handful of other tricks aside from serving the iMessage blue bubble on Android. It also brings all your other messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Instagram, in one place. This isn’t an original formula, as Beeper offers the same convenience.