Every now and then, an app comes out for the iPhone that immediately jumps into your personal top 10. The kind of app that you makes you wonder how you survived without it in the past. Viber is just such an app. It’s very simple in concept. Basically, it allows you to call anyone on your contact list that has viber already installed. The call is completely free and it doesn’t matter if they are in the neighbouring town or on the far side of the world. The steps to get it up and running are very simple. After installing you are asked to register your phone number. You are then sent an SMS message with an activation code. Enter this into the app and then straight away your contacts are all imported into the app.
Unlike Skype, you don’t need to log in or create a buddy list. As you can see in the top left picture, the contacts that have Viber are already marked. I have four on my list so far. Over the weekend I was out in the middle of nowhere when I got a phone call from my sister out of the blue. She was on the other side of the world but the quality of the sound was as if she was in the same country. And that was using Edge. Obviously 3G and WiFi is a lot better. I have already used this a lot over the last week to make free calls. It is so much better than Skype as you don’t need to log in first. Nor do you need to be both on the same buddy list. If you know someone’s telephone number then you can call them for free as long as they have Viber. The developers promise that new features coming soon include texting and ringtones.
Download for free at iTunes >>>
UPDATE: You can now send free text messages to your contacts. Also has push notification for this.
welcome to 2010 RB!
Do you know if we can get the iPhone to vibrate when a call comes in? I keep missing calls when someone calls me via Viber. Thanks
Your heading is “free international calls” but it’s very misleading. How can this be good when u can’t even call those not on viber list for free?!?! Ur review is also terrible, with only an anecdotal report of your one time usage! Can I use this to call emergency department? No answer from you of course!
Ake – Why would you want to call the emergency department in a country on the other side of the world? The point of Viber is to make calls to family and friends in your home country as these calls done the normal way would be expensive. I now have a dozen people on my contact list who have Viber installed and I have been using it a lot. For local calls to other people I just use the iPhone in the normal way.
Hi,
This is an official representative of Viber Media.
First – thank you for the article. we’re delighted to see so many people around the world excited about our application
As for the concerns raised here – Viber itself offers a totally free service. Of course, that depends of both parties have Viber installed – this makes sense.
I would just like to add that Viber will soon be available also on other devices, and not only iPhone. the next one is Android, and it will happen in March. Viber will also allow to send Text Messages very soon (February).
If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free.
Thank you,
Viber.
Thanks for the follow up with new information. Good to see that a great app will be getting even better in the coming months.
Thank you for your information, link and review. I already have Viber and it is excellent, but I’m sure you can guess why I am recording my support
Hi,
I’m excited to announce that Viber 1.1 has just been released.
This new version focuses on the addition of small new features, and mainly – bug fixes.
For release notes and the full fix list, I invite you to visit Viber’s AppStore page and download Viber 1.1
In addition, I would like to draw your attention to our major updates in our Privacy Policy. We changed confusing clauses and made them much clearer, in accordance to users’ feedback.
We would like to thank you for that feedback in the past 2 months, that allowed us to improve and better our service noticeably.
If you have any questions, don’t hesistate to ask.
Thank you,
Viber Media.
Hi there,
Please can someone from Viber explain how to make my iPhone 4 vibrate and or ring when Viber calls come in? I keep missing calls as unless I’m staring at the phone, I don’t know that calls are coming in, which means the person calling would have to send me a text message first to ask me to answer the phone!
Hi Richard,
It is very interesting article.
Viber 2.0 is out now!
4/1/2011
A friend with Viber on his i-phone is currently in Thailand. I have Viber as well, but cannot get through to him or him to me by phone calls. Texting does work. I would really like to be able to talk as opposed to simply texting though.
Can someone please answer this question already asked by a few people here?:
Hi there,
Please can someone from Viber explain how to make my iPhone 4 vibrate and or ring when Viber calls come in? I keep missing calls as unless I’m staring at the phone, I don’t know that calls are coming in, which means the person calling would have to send me a text message first to ask me to answer the phone!