Given that there are a plethora of cross-platform messaging apps available out there these apps have to come up with features that make them stand out from the rest. Viber is a popular messaging app that provides users with both text chat and VoIP features. Today it launched a new feature called Public Chats.
Viber’s Public Chats feature is in beta stage right now and Viber CEO Talmon Marco himself describes it as a social experiment. Public Chats will go live for all Viber users at midnight GMT on Wednesday.
In easy terms this feature can be described as one that lets users follow what companies and public figures are talking about. There are a few launch partners which will be populating these chats initially, launch partners include Pixie Lott, Perez Hilton, DJ Paul van Dyk, football channel COPA90 and fashion company Next Model Management.
Those who are interested in starting an individual public chat themselves can ask for any one of the over 300 spots available by shooting an email to publicchats@viber.com. For now Viber users won’t be allowed to contribute in public chats but the company says that user comments is a feature that will be available down the line.
All public chats on Viber will have a custom URL and some of the most popular chats will be highlighted in a new section, once version 5.1 of the iOS and Android Viber apps go live.