If smartphones have any downside, it’s that the pain of payment doesn’t stop with the purchase. Every time you call a friend or send a text message, you contribute towards your phone bill.
iPhone users long had a way around that problem – Viber. If the person they wanted to call was also running the app and both were in range of a wifi network, the call was effectively free and the sound quality was at least as good as that delivered by the cellular network.
Now the same app has been released for Android devices. It provides the same benefits, and unfortunately, the same weaknesses too.
The app looks a little like Skype. It lacks the video features or the ability to buy minutes but it has the same simplicity, with large buttons to hold calls, start the speaker phone or mute the microphone. A message even lets you know the level of network quality you can expect to enjoy when you place the call.
Contacts, too, are added automatically. Viber scans the phone’s contact list and identifies those users who have already installed the app. (While it’s also possible to use the app to call people who haven’t installed Viber, the call will be placed regularly, giving friends an incentive to recommend the app to others.) Pull up a friend’s name on Viber and you’ll be given the option to make a free call or send a free text message through the app, or place a regular call and send a regular text message.
It’s all neatly done, simple to use and it should, in theory at least, provide an effective solution for people with a large need to talk but just does not seem to have enough free minutes to utilize.
In practice though, VoIP services always deliver less than they promise. Viber is only free if the call is placed over a Wifi network. That doesn’t happen as often as you might like. Call someone over 3G and you’ll get to avoid the network but you’ll still be using your data plan.
VoIP services tend to work best as a solution for regular calls between close contacts who know where each are likely to be at any given moment and, more usually, for foreign travel when roaming charges present a bigger problem to be solved.
Viber is worth installing but it’s unlikely to replace your contract anytime soon.
Download Viber from the Android Market:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.viber.voip&hl=en
