Viber : Free Messages & Calls 3.0.1 (for Android)

Smartphones can do things Alexander Bell never imagined, but the actual phone and messaging experience hasn't changed dramatically. Viber (free, Google Play) is a VoIP app that aims to improve your talk and text experience with some remarkable new tools. It might even save you a little money in the process with free voice and text messages to other Viber users.

Starting Up
Setting up Viber is a snap on Android: just enter your phone number and a user name, and Viber more or less does the rest. Oddly, the Android version defaults to American Samoa for the region code, but it's the same as the United States setting. Viber even verifies itself by sending a text message to your phone, and automatically detects the included activation code so you don't have to enter it yourself?a feature I really liked.

For better or worse your Viber account is tied to your existing phone number. As far as I can tell, this means you have to deactivate your Viber account and export your message data when you get a new device with a different number. It also means you can't set up Viber on a device without a phone number?such as a tablet. However, the big advantage is that Viber will automatically detect which of your contacts is already using the service.

?This is in stark contrast to Google Voice, which lets you create a new, independent phone number that will redirect to the devices of your choosing. Viber is focused more on communication, so look at Google Voice if you want to merge multiple phone numbers behind a single number.

Note that Viber will annoyingly create a shortcut to your device's desktop even if you've already made one.

Using Viber
Once you're up and running, Viber will automatically import all your contacts in the middle contacts section. From here you can quickly call or send messages using either Viber or your normal data plan. This is a smart option, since it encourages you to use Viber as your one-stop-shop for voice and messaging.

Adding and editing contacts, however, is a little wonky. Viber uses the default Android contact editor which is a visually jarring experience and a bit confusing. I'd like to see this process streamlined.

The leftmost section? combines your call history and your text messages. At first I thought this was odd, but I came to appreciate the simplicity. If you absolutely must find a call, the left most call section lists only calls, and includes a dial pad.

Viber also has some fairly extensive settings, perhaps the most important of which is to automatically respond with a Viber message to an incoming SMS message. This will save you the trouble of jumping between apps and help keep your texting bill under control.

When you're not in the Viber app, new messages appear as pop-up windows complete with a text field. This means you can dash off a quick reply, even when the phone is locked. Viber recently took some flak when a researcher found that these windows could be used to bypass the Android lockscreen. Thankfully, this behavior has been fixed in the current version. Annoyingly, there are separate settings for how alerts appear in both the main settings page and the messages settings. I'd like to see these consolidated in future versions.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/HJSJXkFUxsM/0,2817,2419784,00.asp

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