In the face-paced digital world, a product that isn't providing showstopper updates may as well be substitutes for the real players in the field.
Viber for example, has been around for about a decade to provide cross-platform voice over IP (VoIP) and instant messaging (IM). Operated by Japanese company Rakuten, Viber has been more successful in Russia and its surrounding regions than anywhere else.
But with others in the competition seemingly benefit from a wider audience, Viber wants to leap a bit ahead of others.
One of which, is by introducing self-destructing messages feature.
Previously, this disappearing messages feature was only been available in Viber's 'secret chats'. With the update, it is made available in all one-on-one chats.
Viber has proven its commitment to privacy over the years.
While most other apps compete for the same audience, Viber is quite different. And using its rather stealthy move, it released a 'delete message' feature for all chats in 2015, default end-to-end encryption in 2016, and launched 'hidden & secret chats' in 2017.
This time, Viber's disappearing messages in regular chats is seen as part of its ongoing commitment to privacy.
Ofir Eyal, COO of Viber, said that:
"Introduced by Viber in 2017 as part of the 'secret' chats experience, over time we became convinced that a similar measure of ensuring confidentiality, including sending a notification when the recipient takes a screenshot of the disappearing message, should be added to regular chats. This marks another step in our journey towards being the safest messaging platform in the world."
With the feature, users can simply set a timer when they send text, videos, photos and more.
To create a disappearing message, Viber users can simply tap on the clock icon at the bottom of the chat and choose the disappearance period. They can then type the message and hit send.
The timer can last from a few seconds to minutes, hours, or even days, and the countdown starts once the recipient opens the message. And when the time's up, the content will be permanently deleted. Moreover, users will get a notification if anyone takes a screenshot of a disappearing message.
This feature can be ideal for sending confidential information that users might not want hanging around online, like for example, bank account information, credit card details, or personal addresses.
Viber said that the availability of these features to all users should strengthen its position as "the world's most secure messaging app".
A similar feature has been hinted on the beta version of WhatsApp.