Just a few months ago, Skype competitor Viber previewed voice calling on the BlackBerry platform. Viber is available on a multitude of platforms, including iOS, Windows Phone 8, Bada, S40, Symbian, and the list goes on.
However, BlackBerry represents a good chunk of Viber’s user base (it’s their third largest platform behind iOS and Android), and yet it’s still in the minority of Viber apps that don’t have access to voice calls. Today all that changes.
Viber has pushed out an update for BlackBerry users to version 2.4 of the Viber app, finally bringing free voice calls to BlackBerry users for the first time. At first, the update will roll out in a beta version to push the feature out as quickly as possible. Later on, Viber will release the official update.
Here’s what Viber CEO Talmon Marco said in a prepared statement:
BlackBerry is one of the most important markets for us and represents our third largest user base. We are thrilled to bring this community free voice calling, letting them communicate freely with all of their important contacts across multiple platforms.
Interestingly enough, this latest update to voice calling doesn’t include support for the new BB10 operating system BlackBerry is so excited about. The update is compatible with BlackBerry OS 5 and OS 7 — apparently OS 6 simply can’t handle Viber’s voice calling feature “due to inherent limitations of the operating system.”
The update to version 2.4 also squashes some performance bugs for BlackBerry OS 5 users, and has sped things up for users who are sending stickers to their friends.
In terms of voice calling, users running OS 5 and OS 7 will have access to free voice calling on both WiFi and 3G.
If you’re interested in downloading the beta and getting started with Viber for BlackBerry 2.4, simply click here.
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