If you are a Viber fan, you have some cause for cheer. Viber has released its desktop app for Windows and Mac. A rival to Skype in the making?

If you are new to smartphones and don’t know about Viber, it is an app that uses your data plan to make calls. You can also use it for messaging. It is so popular that it claims to have 200 million users across all platforms - Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows, Symbian S60, Nokia S40 and Bada. The desktop version has video calling facility too. The mobile version does not have video calling facility, but might get it soon. The mobile version has a video messaging facility, which should not be confused with live video calling.

Viber says it is possible to seamlessly transfer calls and messages between desktop and mobile. It has also released updates to its mobile applications, with support for desktop. What this means is the seamless transfer between the mobile and desktop apps won’t work if you don’t update your mobile app.

Just like WhatsApp and other messaging apps are slowly overtaking the staid old SMS, with the spread of 3G and high-speed broadband, more and more people are using apps like Viber to make calls.

I realised this last week when a friend started calling me through Viber and insisted I too do the same. He and many of his friends had switched to Viber and used the operator’s voice network only if there was no WiFi or 3G.

The Viber desktop app must be doubly sweet for them.

dinakaran.rengachary@thehindu.co.in

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