It’s been a while, and I decided to revisit Viber, a messaging app I used heavily in the past. I was curious to see what’s new, what’s changed, and what’s different in terms of accessibility.
Table of Contents
A Billion Downloads and Beyond
I was surprised to learn that Viber has surpassed a staggering 1 billion downloads on Google Play. This speaks volumes about its past popularity and continued relevance in some markets.
A Change in Ownership
In 2014, Viber was acquired by Rakuten, a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo and founded in 1997 by Hiroshi Mikitani. Its businesses, centered on the online retail marketplace Rakuten Ichiba, include financial services using fintech, digital content, and communication services such as the messaging app Viber, now called Rakuten Viber.
The Setup Process
Viber’s setup process is fairly standard, requesting typical permissions like sending notifications, making calls, and accessing call logs. It then sends you a call and asks you not to accept or reject the call until it’s verified.
Once verified, you’re taken to a screen where you enter your name, date of birth, and email. If you don’t enter your date of birth, the next screen will ask if you are under 16 or over. The process continues by requesting permissions for taking photos and videos, accessing your location and microphone, and finally, accessing your photos and videos.
New Features
One noteworthy addition is the spam call blocking feature, indicating Viber’s focus on user privacy, which I haven’t personally experienced issues with in my limited recent usage.
Viber places an AI bot on top of your chats list, which is a free AI chatbot based on GPT model by OpenAI. It describes itself as “your personal virtual assistant for (almost) everything.” You can forward messages to the AI bot and ask anything. However, it does not support sending voice messages or uploading photos to the chat. I tried asking questions, and it responded to me very quickly.
Similar to saved messages on Telegram or sending messages to yourself on WhatsApp, Viber offers notes to which you can forward messages or send anything, including text, photos, voice messages, and videos.
There are many other new features for stickers, photo editing, and such, but they don’t hold much significance from a blind person’s perspective.
Monetization and Premium Features
Viber now displays ads in your chats tab. While not a deal-breaker, it can be annoying. To counter this, they offer a premium subscription called Viber Plus, similar to Telegram Premium, which removes ads, grants additional features like voice message transcription, and provides exclusive benefits like live chat support with Viber.
Accessibility Concerns
There are numerous unlabeled buttons on the chat screen. These primarily pertain to displaying chat messages, playing voice messages, or options related to photos you have sent or received.
The focus randomly jumps when you receive a message while reading the chat history, which can be a real headache
When it comes to receiving calls, there’s an unlabeled single icon representing call actions along with the caller’s name. TalkBack doesn’t announce anything when you’re focused on the accept/reject button. However, if your earcons are turned on, the sound will help you know when you’ve focused on it. To answer the call, long-press and slide right. Alternatively, you can accept/reject it from the notifications, where the buttons are accessible. However, you may not hear TalkBack when the Viber ringtone is playing. Therefore, the best practice is to use vibration mode.
Options related to calls are accessible, and you can easily end calls. However, ending the call with a double-tap using two fingers is not supported. The audio quality remains excellent, reminiscent of the good old days.
Detailed Settings and Privacy Options
The settings offers detailed privacy options, allowing you to control who can message or call you. There’s also the option to route calls to Viber, although I’m not sure how it works. Perhaps, by having access to your call logs, it can display your recent calls within the Viber app.
Additionally, you can purchase Viber Out credits to call international numbers or subscribe to Viber Plus. Lastly, there are standard chat settings such as font, wallpaper, backup, and hidden chats.
A Touch of Nostalgia and a Bittersweet Farewell
Installing and using Viber brought back a wave of nostalgia, but seeing only a handful of inactive contacts in my list left me feeling bittersweet. Ultimately, I decided to delete my account, acknowledging Viber’s efforts to compete in the evolving landscape while recognizing its distance from top contenders in terms of accessibility.
Conclusion
Viber’s journey reflects the ever-changing tech landscape. While it boasts a loyal user base and boasts new features like spam call blocking, detailed privacy options, a free AI chatbot and a great audio quality for voice calls, its user interface leaves room for improvement in terms of accessibility. With over a billion downloads on Google Play and a wide user base worldwide, including potentially blind users, Viber should consider enhancing the accessibility of their Android app. I recall the days when Viber was more popular, especially during a time when other apps had limited audio call features. Blind individuals were compelled to switch to alternative apps due to Viber’s lack of consideration for accessibility. Unfortunately, it seems that nothing has changed over the years. My nostalgic revisit ended with a farewell, but it serves as a reminder of the app’s past influence and the dynamic nature of the tech world.
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