Viber VOIP Phone App: 10 Things You Should Know About It

By Don Reisinger

Since Microsoft acquired Skype a few years ago, the company has been quietly making it more appealing to enterprise customers. Skype is integrated into Windows quite nicely, its security has been improved, and it’s a useful tool for video conferencing. Viber is trying to hit on those features for its own service, but whether the corporate world should care is another story.

Viber is a rather odd company. The firm currently provides its service on BlackBerry and has extended Viber Out to Windows Phone in a bid to attract more corporate customers. Yet, there appears to be no solid enterprise focus. Viber has yet to make a real sales pitch to the enterprise. Until it does, the corporate world should keep in mind that Viber doesn’t quite understand the enterprise’s needs and desires.

Viber had some egg on its face in 2013 when it was hit with a phishing scam launched by the Syrian Electronic Army. The scam allowed the hackers to access the Viber support page, and reports suggested the service’s database was also cracked. Although Viber says nothing was stolen, the security issue should be a warning sign to enterprise users who want only the most secure services running on their networks.

Despite the general lack of enterprise understanding at Viber, there’s a real chance that the IT side will need to deal with the service. With the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement gaining momentum, consumers are bringing their own devices into the office and putting them on corporate networks. While BYOD has its virtues, it’s also a major headache for IT professionals, and it forces them to deal with services they might not otherwise care about. Viber is one of those platforms.

Viber Out is a potentially useful tool for corporate users. This service allows calls to be placed from any mobile or desktop device for a relatively cheap fee. In fact, a similar offering from Skype has proved extremely useful for corporate customers who want cut-rate fees when calling overseas. Viber Out might be the first service built into the platform worth looking into for corporate users. That is—if all of the platform’s other, aforementioned issues can be overcome or worked out.

Remember that talk of BYOD? Well, the trouble with Viber—for IT teams, that is—is that people are using it heavily across the globe. Viber claims that it has 200 million active users in 193 countries, a number it reached in just four years since introducing the service. What’s more, Viber’s user base continues to grow each month. So, if Viber isn’t already a BYOD problem for some IT professionals today, it might soon be, given its growth rate.

Although Viber and Skype like to promote their services as free offerings, the truth is that they’re not entirely free. Viber Out requires users to buy credits that are applied to calls made to landlines across the world. There’s also a top-off feature that replenishes funds once they hit a certain amount. So, while Viber-to-Viber communication is free, be aware that Viber Out will cost some cash.

Viber is an app that the IT side should keep a close eye on. In fact, one could easily recommend that it be banned from use inside corporate networks, given its past security issues. If the latter course is chosen, the IT side should employ remote device management solutions to stop the app from working in the office and institute policies against its use on products owned by the company. This is not to say that Viber is a bad platform, but if the IT side has decided it’s a question mark, device management is an essential tool to keep Viber under controls in enterprises. Viber is all the rage, and there’s no telling whether a company’s workers will listen to simple directives.

It’s rather odd that Rakuten acquired Viber for $900 million. After all, Viber is a Skype competitor that focuses on communication, while Rakuten is a Japan-based e-retailer. Although Rakuten has owned Viber for a year, there’s no telling what the company has planned for Viber and whether it will add features that will make it less enterprise-friendly. Keep an eye on Rakuten’s plans for Viber as time goes on.

For those looking to use Viber, it’s hard to take issue with the platform’s availability. The service is available on the desktop, as well as every major mobile platform, including even Samsung’s Bada. That has helped Viber grow into such a big VOIP provider and will undoubtedly help it grow over the coming years.