You may know Viber. It's one of the many messaging apps — including WhatsApp, Line and WeChat — that are challenging wireless carriers and platform owners such as Facebook with free (or borderline free) messaging between its users. And it just got a big upgrade that evolves the service beyond mobile.
Viber 3.0 is launching Tuesday on iOS and Android. But it's also launching on desktop — both PC and Mac — for the first time. Charting a path that's like Skype in reverse, Viber is now spreading to the desktop after conquering mobile.
And according to Viber's own statistics, the word "conquering" is correct. The service now boasts 200 million users, although CEO Talmon Marco told Mashable that about half are "active" users — that is, those who have logged into the service within the last month.
Making the Skype analogy even more apt, Viber's desktop version brings video calls, something it hasn't offered until now. Calls are strictly desktop-to-desktop for the time being, although Marco said he plans for all users to eventually have this feature.
Messaging works on the desktop app, too, and users can transfer chats from phone to computer with a single click or tap. Incoming messages appear in all open apps, but once you pick up the conversation on mobile, the desktop app doesn't continue to beep.
Viber 3.0 on mobile includes several new features, most notably, video messages. Also included are new "stickers" that users can send, a new voice engine and a brand-new user interface for Android.
"When we started designing Viber for Android in late 2010, there was no such thing as Android look and feel," Marco said. "So we chose our own look and feel, which was iPhone. But today there is now distinct Android look and feel, the 'Holo' interface. So we're bringing the Holo interface to Viber. We also worked hard to make sure it works well with smaller screen sizes."
by pete pachal
