Viber Update Adds Inline YouTube Playback Feature

It’s safe to say that messenger platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are some of the most popular messenger apps these days, but if you’re more of a Viber user, or maybe if you use Viber for chatting with specific people, then you might be interested to learn that the app has recently received an update that makes it easier to watch YouTube videos.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the update to Viber adds inline YouTube playback support. What this means is that if you were to send a YouTube link to someone you’re chatting with or vice versa, it will show up with a small thumbnail preview and a button that users can press to play the video.

Pressing the play button will see the video launch and users can then choose to expand it to full screen, pause, or move it around. This is versus older versions of Viber where clicking the link would open it up inside a browser, so this should help shave a couple of seconds off that. Interestingly enough this feature actually puts it ahead of apps like WhatsApp which still does not have inline YouTube support.

However with everyone pretty much copying each other’s features these days, we wouldn’t be surprised if that feature were to eventually find its way to WhatsApp as well. In addition to inline YouTube playback, the update also adds online status and a last seen timestamp for your contacts.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Apps, viber, YouTube