WhatsApp Call consumes a lot of MB, So which voice calling app uses the least data per minute?

Free voice call apps, which use data to place calls, can offer a cheaper way to keep in contact with friends abroad and come to the rescue when you’ve used up your monthly minute quota. However, with multi-gigabyte data plans still often coming at a premium price, the busiest chatters out there could soon eat into their monthly allowance using voice over data calls.

The results

We can instantly spot a huge difference between the leanest and the heaviest data consuming applications. Interestingly, many of the most well-known apps, such as Hangouts, Skype and WhatsApp, consume by far the most data, while KakaoTalk, Nimbuzz and Line all consume comparatively smaller amounts of data. Facebook Messenger also makes a bit of a surprise appearance as one of the most data efficient ways of placing a voice call.

Perhaps a little worryingly for Skype users, the app consumes over 2.7 times the amount of data per minute than the most economical apps. WhatsApp consumers 2.3 times the data of KakaoTalk, while Hangounts and Tango consume around twice the data each minute. Over the course of an hour’s worth of calls, the difference between Skype and KakaoTalk works out to around 33.4MB, which might be a point worth considering if you’re on a more limited data plan and like to talk.

Magic Jack and Viber both consume a little more data than others, but are still much economical choices than the more established apps. These may be the best choice if you’re looking for a balance between call quality and data usage.

To be fair to the big brands, we do know that Skype implements a rather intelligent codec that is capable of various sample and bit rates. We went back to see if switching down to a 3G network, with more limited bandwidth, would make any difference to the data consumed, but the results came back well within the margin for error. We can conclude that a 3G connection is more than good enough for the best voice call quality that Skype and the other apps have to offer on Android, so you’ll probably always find that these apps consume around this amount of data, regardless of a 3G, 4G or WiFi connection type.

While the big companies may be able to spend some cash on extra bandwidth and servers, Kakao, Nimbuzz and Line most likely make use of a lower quality communication to save on expensive server bandwidth, which has the added benefit of saving us data usage too.

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Leaked screenshots of Voice calling in WhatsApp’s upcoming iPhone update!

As you know, the world’s most popular mobile messaging software, WhatsApp, is being purchased by the social networking giant Facebook for a staggering $16 billion. WhatsApp previously promised to introduce VoIP calling in the second quarter of this year, a move poised to turn the tables on competition like Viber, now owned by Rakuten.

While Viber last December unveiled a new Skype-like Viber Out feature for making low-cost outgoing calls to international mobile and landline numbers, a set of screenshots leaked on Friday purportedly depicting what WhatsApp’s VoIP calling will look like in its iPhone application, a free download from the App Store…

According to Italian Apple blog iPhoneItalia (Google translate), WhatsApp’s VoIP calling interface is heavily reminiscent of the new-look Phone app in the latest iOS 7.1 update, down to the circular End Call button. When a VoIP call comes in, the app displays your caller’s name, along with their photo and phone number. As the screenies attest, WhatsApp’s in-call features apparently include call-muting, directing the call through the speaker and switching back to a messaging session. Akin to other VoIP calling apps on the App Store, switching to another app while the VoIP session is in progress will prompt iOS to put a colored bar at the top so you can easily switch back to the call with a tap.

Another new feature: a camera button at the top of the keyboard which lets you quickly attach multiple photos to a text message. Sending multiple photos in the current WhatsApp version is a multi-tap affair (photo attachments are hidden behind the More button) so this minor tweak should be welcomed by fans of text messaging.

 

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum confirmed at Mobile World Congress a month ago that“we’re going to introduce voice on WhatsApp in the second quarter of this year.” iOS and Android editions of WhatsApp will get voice calling first, he said, with Windows Phone and some BlackBerry phones getting the feature at a later stage.

According to The Guardian, VoIP calling between WhatsApp users should be free. Currently, WhatsApp has voicemail and lets you send recorded messages to contacts.

You can download WhatsApp free of charge in the App Store.

Although it got refreshed with iOS 7-friendly look back in December, WhatsApp still supports iPhone and iPod touch devices running – wait for it – iOS 4.3 or later.

Viber acquired by e-commerce giant Rakuten for $900 million!

This is kind of interesting. The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that the popular voice call app Viber has agreed to a deal to be acquired by Rakuten for $900 million. For those unfamiliar with the e-commerce giant, it’s essentially Japan’s version of Amazon.

Viber is available on all major mobile and desktop platforms, and is one of Skype’s biggest competitors with over 300 million users worldwide. It was one of the first apps to allow 3G VoIP on the iPhone and it now supports land-line calls, messages and even push-to-talk…

Here’s the report from The Journal:

“Japan’s Rakuten Inc. 4755.TO +1.22% said it will acquire call-application maker Viber Media Inc. for $900 million, in the online retailer’s first major foray into voice communications.

The deal for Cyprus-based Viber, which lets users make Internet-based calls on smartphones and computers, expands the Japanese e-commerce giant’s global portfolio of services, which now spans e-readers, financial services, and the baseball team that until recently hosted star pitcher Masahiro Tanaka.”

And their statements from the press release:

“I am tremendously excited to welcome Viber to the Rakuten family. Viber delivers the most consistently high quality and convenient messaging and VoIP experience available. Additionally, Viber has introduced a great sticker market and has tremendous potential as a gaming platform. Simply put, Viber understands how people actually want to engage and have built the only service that truly delivers on all fronts. This makes Viber the ideal total consumer engagement platform for Rakuten as we seek to bring our deep understanding of the consumer to vast new audiences through our dynamic ecosystem of Internet Services.”

Viber CEO and Founder, Talmon Marco, underlined these synergies:

“Rakuten is one of the world’s most important Internet companies. It is truly dominant in its home market of Japan and has been rapidly expanding globally. This combination presents an amazing opportunity for Viber to enhance our rapid user growth in both existing and new markets. Sharing similar aspirations with Rakuten, our vision is to be the world’s No.1 communications platform and our combination with Rakuten is an important step in that direction.”

While the $900 million offer seems a bit small in comparison to other tech acquisition deals, it’s worth noting that Viber doesn’t make much money. It’s only recently began generating revenue via sticker sales and Viber Out, which allows users to call non-Viber numbers for a fee.

Rakuten, for its part, generates about $65 billion in revenue per year, and has recently made major investments in Pinterest, and Canadian e-book firm Kobo. There’s no word yet on its plans for Viber, but it appears that it’s going to continue to operate it as a standalone service.

Viber 4.0 arrives with push-to-talk, Viber Out, Sticker Market, tweaks and more

Viber has just released an update to version 4.0, introducing the revenue-generating sticker market for the very first time, as well as adding some new features and platform support.

Along with the new sticker market, which has grown from 50 free stickers to a collection of more than 300 stickers priced at $1.99, Viber is also adding a push-to-talk feature, much like what Boost Mobile was doing in all those “(Chirp) Where You At?” ads.

However, Viber claims to be using special technology that minimizes the time spent waiting between voice messages. Rather than record, send, download, and play (taking around 45-60 seconds for an average 15 second voice message), Viber push-to-talk does the recording, sending and playing all at once to turn around voice messages in four to six seconds.

While less technologically impressive, Viber’s new sticker market is an important product for the company, as it marks the first time Viber has added a paid feature to the free calling and messaging app. There are over 1,000 stickers that are ready for release in the market, though CEO Talmon Marco plans to unveil more and more over time, starting with around 300.

Approximately half of them are licensed from third parties, including cartoons and TV shows, while the other half are created by a team of 20 designers from all around the world. Viber does not disclose the revenue split for licensed material.

Of course, Viber has other potential routes for monetization as well, including call termination (a business the company has been experimenting with) as well as Viber Out.

Viber Out is a premium feature that lets users call any phone number (even non-Viber users). The company unexpectedly debuted ahead of schedule to participate in the relief effort in the Philippines, letting people hit by the Typhoon dial out to any number for free.

Along with push to talk and the launch of the sticker market, Viber is also bringing the app to Android tablets, offering similar functionality to the desktop app. Android tablet owners can message and take calls, switching back and forth from tablet to phone with one button.

Viber: hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army, Again!

Internet companies beware, hackers are out in full force this month. In the past two weeks, we’ve seen Apple’s Dev Center hacked, several Instagram accounts hacked, and the popular voice and messaging service Viber attacked.

Viber claims, though, that the damage it suffered from its breach was minimal, saying the attacker only gained access to two minor support systems. But a quick glance at its App Store description suggests that wasn’t the case…

Earlier this evening, 9to5Mac pointed to the App Store description of Viber’s popular iOS app, which had clearly been defaced. The attackers replaced the text with “We created this app to spy on you, PLEASE DOWNLOAD IT!”

The site was able to grab a screenshot before the description was restored:

From a distance, it looks like this could be related to Apple’s Dev Center attack, but it’s not likely. 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman suggests the hackers could have gained access to Viber’s iTunes Connect account using a phishing scam.

From the company’s initial statement on the hack:

“Today the Viber Support site was defaced after a Viber employee unfortunately fell victim to an email phishing attack. The phishing attack allowed access to two minor systems: a customer support panel and a support administration system. Information from one of these systems was posted on the defaced page.

It is very important to emphasize that no sensitive user data was exposed and that Viber’s databases were not “hacked”. Sensitive, private user information is kept in a secure system that cannot be accessed through this type of attack and is not part of our support system.

But my problem here is that Viber hasn’t been very transparent about the attack. Sure, they claim that there was no sensitive user data exposed. But they also said the hack was limited to two minor systems, which it obviously wasn’t.

As a long-time user, I think the company has some more explaining to do.

Viber was initially hacked on Tuesday, July 23rd, by the Syrian Electronic Army. The group claims the Israeli-based firm, which hosts 200 million users worldwide, is “spying and tracking” its users, and says folks should stay away.