Viber Movie Calling Review: Lots of Improvements, But Not to the Movie Talk Service – VC Daily
Viber Movie Calling Review: Lots of Improvements, But Not to the Movie Talk Service
Messaging and movie call provider Viber spent two thousand sixteen like a youthful duo renovating an old house. It added a bunch of fresh features to its service, updated its look, and improved security. It also found a fresh way to generate ad revenue in the form of public talks.
What it didn’t do was improve its movie calling practice.
Now, Viber has operated primarily as a talk service since its launch in 2010, and only added movie calling in two thousand fourteen , but if you’re going to suggest the function we think you should give it a little touch-up when you make improvements.
In renovation terms, Viber added a fresh decorate of paint and some fresh curtains to the rest of the house, but just disregarded the blandest room in the place. And so Viber finishes two thousand sixteen as it began it, in fourth position behind Skype, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp on the download charts, and, in our opinion, taking a chance its relevance in the movie calling world.
Viber Movie Is Just…Bland
Movie calling on Viber is functional, we’ll admit that. It works across iOS, Android, and Windows phones, and it can include callers on PC and tablet. It’s effortless to use, as it is included in the main app download and launches directly from the phone numbers of you and your contacts.
The audio and visuals are clear enough, and the latter well proportioned, provided you have access to a solid Wi-Fi connection. What it can’t do is group movie calling, which isn’t so bad when you consider that other mega popular apps such as WhatsApp and Google Duo can’t do that either. But Skype and Google Hangouts certainly can, and so can some far smaller smartphone-based services .
With the resources of a service that has more than eight hundred million users worldwide , the option to not include group movie calling is clearly a business decision. And it’s in keeping with Viber’s overall movie calling ethos, which seems to treat movie calling as an add-on to one-on-one messaging and group talk.
The Face and Nothing But the Face
As I mentioned above, the best thing about Viber movie calling is that it works. And that’s pretty much the extent of what it seems to set out to achieve.
It looks the way Skype has looked for the better part of a decade. Just a big screen for your companion, with a puny screen tucked away in the top corner displaying your own face.
There are no collective controls or screen sharing. No custom-built backgrounds, or even stupid avatars and masks. No zoom or pic control. And if your connection isn’t humming along at optimum speed, the entire conversation quickly falls into lags, pixelation, and the dreaded green screen. You can switch inbetween the cameras on your phone lightly, if that’s a consolation.
Until Viber starts demonstrating an interest in making movie calling a major feature, it is best to think of the app as a talk service that will permit you to quickly hop to live face-to-face conversation if the current topic makes it necessary.
Viber Talk Still a Leader, and Still Free
Those two thousand sixteen renovations of the talk service I mentioned earlier began with a softer look, exemplified by the switch to a pastel version of the company’s trademark purple tones.
However, the most significant fresh feature is improved talk security. While Viber was primarily criticized for not exposing the blueprints of its fresh end-to-end encryption when it was announced in mid-2016 ( and for doing the job in-house, rather than courting an accomplished outside source ) it has since laid things naked , and the result is security that should put even jumpy users at ease.
In addition, Viber introduced soft-sell advertising in the form of public accounts, which let users live talk a number of celebrities and organizations, such as Huffington Post, Mashable, Big black cock, and Justin Bieber.
It’s an innovative treatment to monetizing a free service, and less intrusive than the ads and pushy, buy-now talk sticker packs that have predominated Viber so far.
All of which underlines Viber’s true calling as a messaging service, not a movie talk platform. Perhaps one day it’ll turn its attention to renovating the movie call function. Until then, we’ll choose to stick with what Viber does best–sending messages and stupid stickers to our friends.