It gives Viber, which was acquired by Japan’s Rakuten earlier this year for $900 million, a little social media spin, and at the same time helps differentiate it from the rest of the crowded messaging app pack, which is led by the likes of Facebook (Messenger: 500m users WhatsApp: 600m) but also includes a number of other very popular apps like WeChat (600m users) Line and many more. (And then, those comments will become a part of the public stream.) Users will only be able to jump in and talk in Public Chats if the account in question is in their contacts.
Public Chats will see the introduction of live conversation streams - from celebrities, or as CEO Talmon Marco told me, other interesting people “like taxi drivers!” - that will be open for any follower to see, but not necessarily participate in.
But today Viber, the messaging app with 209 million users, is taking a different approach: it is launching Public Chats, giving users a way of using its direct messaging and voice services app to broadcast to the world at large. A lot of messaging apps have been highlighting how their services are a great way for people to directly communicate with their friends directly, in opposition to the bare-all nature of social networks like Facebook.
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