We’re pretty big fans of Viber around these parts, as evidenced by Robin calling it “amazingly amazing” when it launched for the iPhone last month. Built to allow 100% free VoIP calls over 3G and WiFi, it’s one of a small handful that dares venture into the same territory as the seemingly-untouchable giant, Skype. Whether or not Viber ever finagles any sizable chunk of the mobile VoIP market out of Skype’s grasps, competition is always a good thing.
Vibers main drawback, at this point, is that it’s only available for iOS. As it’s built only for Viber-to-Viber calls, that meant the free calling goodness was limited to others rockin’ an iPhone or iPod Touch. Viber promised an Android app was on the way — and today, we’ve learned a bit more about when we’ll see it.
Starting early this morning, we received a handful of tips indicating that Viber was planning on releasing their Android port come March. We reached out to Viber founder Talmon Marco, and he went ahead and confirmed it. He says they’re “almost development complete” — in other words, it’s just about time to bring in the first batch of users for testing. Expect to hear more about Viber’s Android plans next week.
On a bit of a side note: Talmon also mentioned that text messaging support should be hitting the iPhone application some time in February. Given that text-based chat and cross-platform compatibility are the two primary features that Viber lacks against the competition, it sounds like it’s about time for the big guns to start paying attention.