Viber, the iPhone app that lets you make free calls to other Viber users was today updated to version 2.0 and brings with it free text messaging. Admittedly there are a lot of free messaging apps in the App Store but the advantage of Viber is that it now offers both texting and calling in the same app and already has a user base of 10 million people.
The messaging service becomes one of the bottom tabs and will store all your messages in a very similar manner to that of the iPhone’s ‘Messages’ app and can effectively replace the need for SMS messages between any other friend or colleague - if you can convince them to download Viber. There has also been some redesign of various screens in the app including the contacts interface which can now refine your contacts list to just display those who have Viber or those which you have “favorited”.
Finally the basic calling mechanism has been tweaked to give the user more information about the state of a call. When you first place a call the app enters a “Calling” state, once contact is made with the other person’s Viber app it will enter a “Ringing” state to let the user know that there is a connection.
[Via TechCrunch]
