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(Opens in a new window) Read Our Facebook Messenger (for Android) Review It also means you can only be logged into one device at a time. This means you have to deactivate your Viber account and export your message data when you get a new device with a different number. You can't really use Viber on a tablet because, for better or worse, your Viber account is tied to your existing phone number. I was prompted to enter a confirmation number when I tried to install Viber on my Nexus 7 ($64.95 at Walmart) (Opens in a new window) tablet but didn't see such when setting up my phone with Viber. Viber handles this authentication behind the scenes. Most messaging services that use your phone number, such as WhatsApp ($0.00 at Google Play) (Opens in a new window), confirm your account by sending a text message to your phone. Setting up Viber is a snap on Android: Just enter your phone number and a user name, and Viber more or less does the rest. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. ( Read our editorial mission (Opens in a new window) & see how we test everything we review (Opens in a new window).)
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There are desktop apps as well, but note that you can only have one phone associated with each account. This is a cross-platform service, so you can install it on your iPhone or Windows Phone. Viber is available for free on the Google Play store, and I had no trouble installing it on my Nexus 5x ($89.99 at Amazon) (Opens in a new window). A recent update has added end-to-end encryption, but it feels like this app has lost a bit of ground against the competition, as I'll explain.
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Prominent among these tools is Viber, a powerful Android app that lets you text, call, and make video calls with anyone on the service. And then came the over-the-top messaging services that use data, instead of your cellular connection, to send messages. In the beginning, there was text messaging, and it was good-except that it frequently cost money and messaging people overseas was prohibitively expensive, if not actually impossible.
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