Talk:Viber

Protection

"privacy accusation" is a nice sensational title but is irrelevant and has no backup in the text. The section was added by a guy calling himself "UTLguy" (caps are mine) refers as "source" to a site called UTLgate (again, my caps). Is UTL and ULT the same? Is this guy quoting himself as source? Further, the original blog post states that "...calls that you make on Viber are being logged and recorded on those server" - a fascinating accusation that has no backup. The site utlgate is based in Beirut, Lebanin (!!), is ranked 1,276,986 by Alexa and has most of its readers coming from Pakistan. Regarding the fact that the founder of Viber is Israeli and served in the IDF, as well as him graduating "cum laude" from the Tel Aviv University, while this may all be true I do not see the relevance to the article. This section should be removed. I propose that we limit this to the name of the founder. If someone feels Mr. Marco is notable enough, they can create a Wiki entry for him. Please remove this section Quinta222 (talk) 12:38, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

I agree with Quinta222 - I see no reason for this section. It should be removed. The CV of the founder is irrelevant.Nokiki (talk) 07:49, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Agree with Quinta222 and Nokiki - this makes very little sense. Drop the life story of the founder and stick to the company. 80.169.25.242 (talk) 22:23, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

Same here. Drop this section. Totally out of place212.183.128.72 (talk) 22:02, 22 June 2012 (UTC)

Ultgate.com is not the only source mentioned , and details about this specific site are not relevant to the removal of the founder, for some reason Quinta222 who has no other contribution in wikipedia is interested in hiding the founder of this application , well i am not an expert but all the articles on wikipedia include info about the owner of the respective "creation"( movies , books , application , firms ...)

There is no valid reason behind hiding the founder of this application . — Preceding unsigned comment added by Utlguy (talk • contribs) 00:17, 2 July 2012‎

I have no problem with the name of the founder. If you want additional information about the founder, it should be on a page of its own. As for all the "privacy accusation" - there is no substantial source. It's just an accusation made in a video published by Hezbollah, a terrorist organization from Lebanon. The article quoted is also from Lebanon and the most recent edit is from an IP from Lebanon - 63.216.108.211. Are we really going to let Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, write this page?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Quinta222 (talk • contribs) 13:19, 3 July 2012 (UTC)

Well the privacy accusation has been gone for long now , you should've realized that , the origin could've have changed to the name of founder and the country of origin , instead you kept deleting and messing up with the page.--Utlguy (talk) 10:42, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

"Why we think Viber is dangerous !? 1. Viber was founded by Israelis" - this is how the blog in question starts. It is very transparently bigoted and provides no backing to the claims of being spyware.--Taltamir (talk) 04:20, 16 July 2012 (UTC)

ORIGIN BACKING

i see no relevance between naming the founder and Hezbollah

Anyway more links backing the story  : ( confirming that talmon is the owner and his identity ) includes one link .gov.il and another .il I personally don't think that Hezbollah could've owned a website with an extension .il http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000746993&fid=1725 http://ws.lteconference.com/speaker/talmon-marco/ http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4189528,00.html itrade.gov.il/us-chicago/2012/02/17/israeli-smartphone-app-viber-growing-quickly/ http://www.park.by/post-460/--Utlguy (talk) 01:12, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Origin

its obvious that this application is from Israeli origins , i see no reason from anyone to remove that from its page , please review the removal of the origin , as it does not make any sense. It's a page about the application , and all information including its origin is important . — Preceding unsigned comment added by Utlguy (talk • contribs) 20:45, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

The founder is Israeli, that doesn't make it an Israeli origin (not to mention that this is not a crime). If you wish to discuss the CV of the founder setup a page for him. The reference you are providing (likely to your own blog) is not credible. Please keep politics out of Wikipedia. Thank you Quinta222 (talk) 14:33, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

If the founder is Israeli , then the application is from Israeli origin , that's simple as 1+1 , and I said nothing about being Israeli , you are the one afraid to show the indisputable fact that this application is from Israeli origin --Utlguy (talk) 01:14, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Why does the text say "might have been founded"? The company doesn't know when it was founded? I can't check the sources because they are paywalled.--84.62.226.194 (talk) 11:37, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

Agreed, sounds comical for an encyclopedia! Might or might have not maybe? If not, what is the 2nd possible option - it is not listed or clear. :) Naki (talk) 10:14, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

Wifi

I think there should be an explanation of how different messagin over wifi is from normal 2g/3g/4g networks. I'm no expert but from what I know, if the call/message is sent by viber over wifi and hence internet, it does not incur any phone charges since the phone company's 2g/3g/4g network is not used. Any charges if ever come from the wifi/internet itself. So if the sender is at a free wifi hotspot, the sender spends nothing.

However I do not know what happens if the sender uses viber over wifi to send a message to a non viber user or a viber user that is currently not connected to wifi internet. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vmaldia (talk • contribs) 00:10, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Terrible windows phone performance

Application is claiming to support major platforms... It is not true - you cannot read/send voice messages on windows application (desktop windows 7 as well as windows phone 8)... Even when voice messages would be available, application for windows phone is so slow, it is in fact not usable... there is no action that executes faster than 5-6 seconds, most of the actions (e.g. open after message arrival) take about 10-15 seconds... it is practically dead...

developers claim everything is perfectly OK...

--178.41.106.9 (talk) 02:21, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

Application for smartphones

In the opening sentence Viber is referred to as an "application for smartphones". However, Viber is also available for deskop operating systems namely Windows, OS X and Linux? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ograws (talk • contribs) 22:55, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Covid 19 AnaghGamerYT (talk) 07:15, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

3G/4G and Wi-Fi networks

What do they mean it works "both on 3G/4G and Wi-Fi networks"? Does it mean it would not connect when connected "just" via GPRS / EDGE / UMTS / HSDPA? Because these are most spread these days, 3G was not built in our country (though we already have LTE), what do they mean?

I am afraid that they more probably meant that it can use both mobile internet connection, and Wlan.. but put it in this way, one may think it would not work when connected eg thru EDGE (sufficiend for text and some smaller pics). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.175.97.117 (talk) 22:36, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Viber. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20120512004406/http://www.timescolonist.com:80/business/Viber+BlackBerry+Windows+Phone+Available/6583826/story.html to http://www.timescolonist.com/business/Viber+BlackBerry+Windows+Phone+Available/6583826/story.html

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Shabtai family

The article states "The sale of Viber earned the Shabtai family ....". For the reader it is not clear who the shabtai family is and why it is mentioned here since the name of the founder is not "Shabtai". --2.246.92.230 (talk) 15:08, 5 October 2016 (UTC)

In all the social media websites, there must be login type added.

In all the social media websites, or the websites in which there is login, we must added proper description that how a user can login. like in some social media there is only login by phone number or in some email is only login or in some any of both are valid. There must be Login Type added in Infobox Software. Examples

Login Type - Only by Phone Number Login Type - Only by Email address(or Username) Login Type - Phone Number or Email address(or Username)(Any) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Niharpatel123456 (talk • contribs) 19:14, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

Bot-written Google-Translated articles used as references?

[48] and [49] are probably written by bots, the former is also machine-translated from Russian. Can such websites be used for reference on Wikipedia?--Adûnâi (talk) 14:34, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

I am no WP:RS expert, but I imagine the reliability of such a site would be the reliability of the source imputed to the translation, modulo the understanding of the connection therein by the editor citing the source. Arlo James Barnes 01:19, 7 January 2019 (UTC) https://www.hrw.org/print/307420

Viber solves the problem of long distance relationships

"Viber was founded in 2010 to solve the problem of long distance relationships." This is not encyclopedic. If this needs to stay, quote it as the founder's inspiration but not as a fact. SPLETTE :] ^{How's my driving?} 03:42, 4 December 2021 (UTC)

COI tag (June 2022)

a number of employees appear to be editing here Theroadislong (talk) 09:29, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

Edit request

Specific text to be removed: The company was run from Israel, with much of its development outsourced to Belarus in order to lower labor costs Reason for the change: in order to lower labor costs: There is no proof that this is the reason, it's not factual and we don't have a source for it therefore we think it should be removed. References supporting change: There are no references because there is no proof. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CKWiki1818 (talk • contribs) 11:19, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

There is a citation for that line, but it is behind a paywall and I can't look at it. 331dot (talk) 13:03, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

 Not done @CKWiki1818 Cannot access cited article behind paywall. Added subscription required template. Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:13, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

Edit request

Specific text to be changed: It began doing so in 2013, via user payments for Viber Out voice calling and the Viber graphical messaging "sticker store" Reason for the change: "sticker store" needs to be changed to "sticker market". This is how it is written on Viber. References supporting change: Screenshots of how it is written on the Viber app are attached to this request at this link: https://imgur.com/a/7JO0Npy — Preceding unsigned comment added by CKWiki1818 (talk • contribs) 11:21, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

 Done Bowler the Carmine | talk 09:16, 22 November 2022 (UTC)

Edit request

Specific text to be changed: As of December 2016, Viber had 800 million registered users.[44] According to Statista, there are 260 million monthly active users as of January 2019.[45]

Reason for the change: As of December 2016, Viber had 800 million registered users.[44] According to Statista, there are 260 million monthly active users as of January 2019.[45] - this text is not updated. It needs to be changed to more updated information.

Here is the new information (references are attached below):
As of January 2022, Viber has over 1.17 billion downloads on Android, and over 820 million monthly active users.

References supporting change: As of January 2022, Viber has over 1.17 billion downloads on Android - https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/09/24/viber-racks-up-one-billion-installs-even-without-your-help/ and over 820 million monthly active users - https://99firms.com/blog/viber-statistics/#gref — Preceding unsigned comment added by CKWiki1818 (talk • contribs) 11:28, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

• CKWiki1818 I've marked these as formal edit requests. I would suggest that you not make more until these are looked at, volunteer editors are often intimidated by lengthy or numerous requests. They're here in their spare time. 331dot (talk) 12:45, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

@CKWiki1818: could you provide a reliable source for the monthly active users? The one you point to appears to be a blog post. The Next Web claims only 250 million monthly active users (in 2021). Ptrnext (talk) 15:24, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

How about this source? - https://belkasoft.com/android_viber_forensics CKWiki1818 (talk) 09:13, 10 July 2022 (UTC)

There is also this source: https://www.asksid.ai/ai/press-release-asksid-continues-its-retail-ai-growth-trajectory-in-south-east-asia-with-its-viber-integration/ CKWiki1818 (talk) 09:17, 10 July 2022 (UTC)

@CKWiki1818 Hello: the belkasoft link cites the same 99firms blog post as the source for the MAU figure. The asksid.ai post doesn't appear to be a reliable source either. The MAU figure that TNW cited is directly from the CEO: "Agaoua said it has 240–250 million monthly active users and 170–180 million daily active users". Both TNW and Asksid are around the same timeframe (Jan–Feb 2021), so a 3x difference just means one of them is wrong. While Wikipedia has no consensus on the reliability of TNW, it is definitely a better source than the other 3 provided links. Ptrnext (talk) 21:22, 10 July 2022 (UTC)

 Not done  ::@CKWiki1818 Trying to clean up these old requests. If you want, submit a new clean request, with a reliable citation dealing with the issues raised above. Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:45, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

Request to remove text

Specific text to be removed:

"On 4 November 2014, Viber scored 1 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Secure Messaging Scorecard". Viber received a point for encryption during transit but lost points because communications were not encrypted with keys that the provider did not have access to (i.e. the communications were not end-to-end encrypted), users could not verify contacts' identities, past messages were not secure if the encryption keys were stolen (i.e. the service did not provide forward secrecy), the code was not open to independent review (i.e. the code was not open-source), the security design was not properly documented, and there had not been a recent independent security audit. On 14 November 2014, the EFF changed Viber's score to 2 out of 7 after it had received an external security audit from Ernst & Young's Advanced Security Centre."

"The company said that the encryption protocol had only been audited internally, and promised to commission external audits "in the coming weeks". In May 2016, Viber published an overview of their encryption protocol, saying that it is a custom implementation that "uses the same concepts" as the Signal Protocol."

Reason for the change: This text is not updated anymore, there is a much more updated version for the "Security" section with viable resources.

References supporting change: There is new and updated information with resources to be added to the "Security" section instead of the text we wish to remove within this request. CKWiki1818 (talk) 10:05, 3 July 2022 (UTC)

 Not done @CKWiki1818 Submit replacement language with reliable citation if you want this text removed. Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:50, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

Request to remove text

Specific text to be removed:

As of December 2016, Viber had 800 million registered users. According to Statista, there are 260 million monthly active users as of January 2019.

Reason for the change: This data is not valid, and it keeps on changing. Each source has different ways to measure the number of active users.

References supporting change: 'The Next Web' claims only 250 million monthly active users, but these sources for example: https://belkasoft.com/android_viber_forensics | https://www.asksid.ai/ai/press-release-asksid-continues-its-retail-ai-growth-trajectory-in-south-east-asia-with-its-viber-integration claims there are 800. It fluctuates and is not consistent among different sources over the internet. CKWiki1818 (talk) 13:54, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

 Not done @CKWiki1818 Both cited sources are reliable and appropriate. I will now review and edit the entire article for notability, unnecessary detail, and overly promotional language. Article added to my watchlist. Duke Gilmore (talk) 23:57, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

@ 178.220.154.222 (talk) 08:51, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Boyfriends

The first time in

197.237.82.174 (talk) 16:47, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

Israeli Origin

Stating that the developer of the application is israeli dis encourages a lot of people from using the application and it can be harmfull. As you see the application is popular in greece russia asian countries and people that they are traditionally supporting palestine , so hiding its israeli origin is a marketing trick Nickodath (talk) 17:59, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Edit request - corporate information

Viber would like to request to edit the following paragraph, as the corporate information is outdated and partially inaccurate:

"The software was developed in 2010 by Cyprus-based[9] Viber Media, which was bought by Rakuten in 2014. Since 2017, its corporate name has been Rakuten Viber. It is based in Cyprus[10] with offices in London, Manila, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, Tokyo, and Beijing.[11][12]"

Here is a suggested paragraph, with updated corporate information and sources:

"The software was originally developed in 2010 by Viber Media, which was subsequently acquired by Rakuten (later Rakuten Group, Inc.) in 2014. Since 2017, the company’s legal name is Viber Media, S. à r.l. and it is incorporated in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. (https://www.viber.com/en/terms/viber-terms-use/)

Viber has approximately 550 team members (https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/63649-72) located remotely across the globe and offices worldwide, including London, Tel Aviv, Sofia, Paris, Barcelona, Luxembourg, Kyiv, Tbilisi, Manila, Singapore and Tokyo. (https://www.viber.com/en/blog/2017-05-29/think-global-cultivating-global-team-culture/, https://agenda.ge/en/news/2022/944#gsc.tab=0) Rakuten Viber (talk) 16:20, 12 December 2024 (UTC)