At the same time, Viber consumes traffic only when it is working in an active mode. Talking about text messages, the difference of traffic amount between the voice calls is just enormous. In real digits, 500 symbols of text worth 1 Kb of mobile data.
If you often send messages and make calls in Viber in the social transport, parks and cafes, it is worth to know how much traffic does the tool consume. At first, would like to assure you, that Viber is quite an economical app. If you cannot use Wi-Fi in order to make a call, 3G or sometimes even EDGE connection is pretty enough for the audio communication between you and one of your contacts.Let us switch to numbers: one minute of call via Viber consumes 130 Kb of web-traffic. Making a comparison with Skype, the messenger from Microsoft “eats” 384 Kb of traffic per one minute of the conversation. As you can notice, the difference is just amazing, so it is definitely reasonable to apply Viber instead of Skype for the daily operations.Viber has another one pleasant and comfortable for the user peculiarity: in sleep mode Viber almost doesn’t consume traffic at all.
For instance, if you installed Skype, even when you don’t use it and smartphone is lying in your pocket, the messenger constantly exchanges mobile data with the internet, so if you don’t have unlimited access to the mobile web, this app will turn out to you as quite expensive thing. At the same time, Viber consumes traffic only when it is working in an active mode.Talking about text messages, the difference of traffic amount between the voice calls is just enormous.
In real digits, 500 symbols of text worth 1 Kb of mobile data. As you can see, Viber in text exchange mode is especially profitable.Finally, one of the heaviest functions is images sending. If the quality of the picture is high enough, to transfer it completely the tool will need at least 150 Kb of data. To be sure, that you reduced the amount of web-traffic as much as you could, check the size of the images before transferring them, and in case of need convert it to different format or lower its quality.I explained in precise digits how much data does Viber use for calls.
Guess, following this information, you will be able to make a proper conclusion and save your money while using one of the most world-wide popular mobile messengers.
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Only non-'deal alert' third-party articles may contain affiliate links.AMAs DateTime (EST)Person(s)DescriptionWeekly NewsletterWeekly Threads DayTopicMondayMoronic MondayThursdayWhat Should I BuySaturdaySaturday APPreciationSundaySunday Rant/RageFlair Icon Legend:.Individual DeveloperCompany DeveloperCustom ROM DeveloperUnaffiliated ContributorOfficial Android OS TeamAndroid Theme DeveloperAndroid-related WebsiteReddit add-on DeveloperGoogle Employee. I just don't get it. I keep reading these stories citing the huge userbases for messaging apps like Viber and Whatsapp, and I honestly don't understand how that can be. I would love to use something like Whatsapp because it is far more polished and feature-packed than the stock messaging options we get with Android, but what kills apps like that for me is the lack of SMS integration.Without SMS, there's literally no reason for me to use something like this. What am I supposed to do? Convince every other person I text with to download Whatsapp or Viber?
That's never gonna happen. And why should it? SMS and MMS work pretty much the same, especially for iPhone users. They already have a messaging app that does proper SMS, MMS, and has tons of emojicons.Facebook Messenger is the first app that I've seen take advantage of this oversight. They integrated SMS into their messenger, which has picked up a lot of steam since the introduction of Chat Heads. This is what every messenger should be doing!
Why aren't they?The lack of SMS integration with the alternative messaging apps is exactly why so many of us will be disappointed if Babel/Hangouts doesn't have it either. It will be just one more polished chat client that will go largely unused because SMS is the great equalizer.
It works between everyone, and it can be integrated with other chat apps as iMessage and Facebook Messenger have both shown.UPDATE: Well, I've certainly learned a lot about the differences in cellular plans between the United States and most of the rest of the world. Thanks for all of the informative replies!After taking all of this in, I can't help but feel like the way our cellular infrastructure took form in the US has put us at a disadvantage as consumers. I realize now that this is common knowledge to people who have seen the difference in other countries firsthand, but I doubt that most Americans realize how much they are getting reamed by the carriers.While offering Unlimited Messaging (SMS/MMS) like we have in the States seems like a good thing on paper, it has actually resulted in a cultural reliance on what is clearly an outdated, inferior messaging solution. Countries in which unlimited messaging was not an option were quick to adopt the free, polished alternatives to SMS like Whatsapp.
That's what I wish would have happened here.I want to use a carrier-agnostic, OS-agnostic chat service with support for group chats, file transfers, emojis. But I can't because every single person I know in my life would never switch from SMS. I could preach to them all that I want, but they just wouldn't see the point.
Even if I converted a handful of friends, we'd all still need to pay for SMS to text anyone else outside of that small circle. It's fruitless.tl;dr - Europeans/Asians got screwed by texting charges, but they eventually ended up with a more liberated approach to messaging. Americans thought they were getting a good deal with unlimited texting, but instead we ended up paying more for a shittier service and making it the gold standard.UPDATE #2: So I decided to do a little experiment and try converting my core group of friends over to Whatsapp. I told all of them to install it so that we could have an ongoing group that in which we could communicate plans and such for the weekends. At first, the idea was met with little hesitation.
My wife and her friend both have Android phones, so they downloaded it no questions asked. One of my friends who has an iPhone happened to have already had it for some reason, but he'd never used it before. Then two of my other friends who have iPhones saw that it was a paid app on the App Store ($1) and said, 'Fuck that. So we had about half of our core group on Whatsapp by the end of the day, and I managed to convince my brother to install it as well. I set it up, configured my notifications and such, and all seemed to be going well. As the day went on, I noticed that nobody was really making use of the group chat function yet, and the fact that only half of our group was on there wasn't helping.The next day I went to work and discovered the real dealbreaker for me with regard to data-based messaging. Where I work, I have very spotty reception.
Because of this, I toggle off mobile data while I'm at work every day. This allows me to still send/receive texts and calls, and I always have my work computer for Internet access while I'm there. With Whatsapp, I'd either need to leave my mobile data on at all times (and watch my battery drain like a stuck pig) or turn on Wi-Fi. When I use Wi-Fi, my work's domain blocking rules prevents Whatsapp from functioning. So that did it.
I uninstalled the app and told everyone else to do the same.While SMS and MMS aren't quite as fast or as polished as some of the data-based alternatives, they still offer incredibly reliable, universal text communication. So in the end, I guess SMS justs fits my lifestyle better. But really, an iMessage-like solution for Android would be the best of all worlds.
Sends via data when connected and via SMS when not. Totally this.
For where I have been living the last couple of years (Bangkok, Singapore, Sweden, Germany) it is the other way around: hardly anyone bothers with SMS anymore.The cost is a major factor. But I also find Whatsapp (the others will be the same) communication to be smoother. You are more likely to have a back-and-forth chat. While SMS is more asynchronous.Also. It is especially popular with the globetrotting crowd (of which I am obviously one and most of my friends are, too) since you don't have to bother about international SMS at all!
My friends half a world away? It's a 'free' text message.If I change out my SIM card when I go to another country for a few weeks?
My whatsapp number stays the same while my cellular number will change.