Viber for iPhone

I have just discovered Viber for iPhone. Let me walk this back a little for you.

A couple of weeks ago Mr. B was traveling outside the US and as we have been socked with outrageous cell phone bills while he has been traveling I investigated solutions for reducing the cost of communicating with home. Skype? That works but voice calls from Skype require a microphone and speakers for your notebook/computer. Plus if you were calling a non-Skype equipped cell phone you were charged for the call. Google Voice? Same thing. Plus you have to input all of your contacts into those programs and send out notices to everyone to "hook-up" with you on those services.

Enter Viber. It is currently for iPhone only (soon Android and Blackberry). It is a true VOIP program. You install the program/app on your iPhone. It searches your contact manager for anyone else in the world who has a Viber account and the Viber contact book puts a Viber icon in their listing. Then you can make a Wi-Fi/3G call to that person from anywhere for free. No fees at all. And the app is free. The other plus is that it can run in the background and will not drain your battery like Skype and Google Voice do.

From Lifehacker.com:

iPhone: Viber is a free app that's basically Skype meets Google Voice. It can make regular voice calls from your iPhone, but upon calling another Viber user it'll automatically route the call over VOIP and cost you absolutely nothing.

Here's how it works: instead of using your iPhone's phone app, you use Viber instead. When you make a call out of Viber, it checks to see if that phone number is registered with another Viber user. If it is, Viber handles the call over VOIP. If it's not, Viber automatically routes the call through your iPhone's phone app. This way you get free calls to other Viber users and other calls will work just the same as always.


Viber may seem to have a limited usefulness because—at least in the US—calls to other iPhones don't use their minutes. Since Viber is currently only available for the iPhone that doesn't do much good. The upside of Viber, however, is making free international phone calls and being able to make calls over Wi-Fi when your cellular reception is particularly poor.


Using Viber is also pretty straightforward, as it's basically a purple version of your iPhone's phone app. Making calls is straightforward, you have access to your address book, and—like many of the iPhone's VOIP apps—the call quality is notably better than you'll get with AT&T.