What a wonderful time to be alive. Back in the day people used to communicate through letters and wire messages. Today you can talk to anyone, anywhere and that too face to face. That’s how far we’ve come in terms of communication technology. Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP as it is commonly known as allows you to communicate with your near and dear ones no matter where they are.
Thanks to this the world seems like a smaller place than it actually is. Information is transferred at a faster pace than ever before making the decision making process quite easy. Here we take a look at a new player in the VoIP game.
Viber:
Viber Media has come up with a new VoIP application in the market. And it’s called Viber under the company’s flagship name. I guess they’re really confident about their product. And why shouldn’t they be? Viber reached 200 million users in May 2013. That’s a big achievement if you think about it. That means that many people prefer using Viber over Skype and GTalk. That should be a cause for celebration for the company’s founder and CEO Talmon Marco. He was the Chief Information Officer for the Israeli Defense Forces Central Command, so you know your information is in good hands. He was also escorted off an airline once by the police for using Viber. I guess that means Viber is worth getting arrested over.
Windows 8 Release:
Windows 8 is the latest operating system from Microsoft with touch functionality. It has made the computing experience quite unique and added a new dimension to it. Making use of this new technology Viber has been released on Windows 8. That makes things interesting. Microsoft owns Skype Technologies and Viber is one of its main competitors. I’m sure there is a conflict of interest there somewhere, but they seem to be co-operating fine.
Easy to Use:
Like we mentioned before due to the Windows 8’s touch functionality it’s pretty easy to use. With the new release even Viber has become less complicated. Your conversations can now be pinned to the Windows 8 start screen. For easy access the Viber application can also be snapped to the side of the desktop screen using Snap View. Contacts can also be searched easily using the Windows 8 default search. With one touch you can also switch between the desktop and mobile version of the application. That means a person in a wheelchair doesn’t necessarily have to use a porch lift to go inside the house to use Viber.
Viber vs. Skype:
Skype is an industry leader, so going up against it is tough to begin with. However Viber does a good job of it. Doesn’t mean it beats Skype at anything, but it comes close. The main problem with Viber according to me is the registration. You need to register your phone number in order to use it. What if I don’t want to do that? Another thing working against Viber is its video calling. The video calling feature is still in its beta stage and it’s not available on mobile platforms. That’s a bummer right there. Viber may not be better than Skype, but it’s a clever alternative. If they play their cards right with the next few releases they may even come close to beating Skype. Who knows in a couple of years you’ll be using Viber to make video calls and Skype will be nowhere on the horizon. I know that is a scenario hard to picture and it takes a lot of imagination, but anything’s possible.
Viber is still a new player in the VoIP game and it still has a long way to go, but it’s shown a lot of promise thus far. If the company stays true to its goals and doesn’t go bankrupt in the process Viber may well be on its way to becoming an industry competitor if not a leader. There’s a lot of room in this world for more than one VoIP application and Viber can share the throne with Skype. Look at Apple and Microsoft. Both are competitors and both are incredibly powerful in their own right, but you can find both Mac and PC users around the globe.
