Viber gains iCloud backup, support for sending money, animated GIFs and more

Viber 6.1 for iOS message backup teaser 001

Messaging service Viber this morning pushed a new update to its App Store app, adding several new long overdue features. For starters, iPhone users can now back up and restore their chat history through iCloud, making keeping their conversations after an iOS restore possible.

The application now has a brand new native watchOS 2 app for your wrist with canned responses on your Apple Watch. Other new features in this edition of Viber include support for sending and receiving animated GIF images, sending money from within the app and low-rate Viber Out calling plans via a redesigned screen.

Viber Backup

Available in Viber’s settings, the new Viber Backup feature uses iCloud to back up your messages. After  reinstalling Viber, you can restore your chat history, too. You can choose to automatically back up your Viber chat history weekly or monthly, but not daily.

Chat history can be restored to the same phone number, even if it is being activated on a new device, as long as it’s the same operating system.

Viber 6.1 for iOS Viber Backup iPhone screenshot 001

The feature is not compatible with Viber’s recently introduced end-to-end encryption.

“Please note that once your data is save to iCloud, it is no longer protected by Viber encryption,” notes the company.

Android users get to back up their chat history to Google Drive.

WatchOS 2 app and more

With Viber’s refreshed native app for the Apple Watch, you can send canned responses which are user-customizable via a new Apple Watch section within Viber’s settings.

Viber 6.1 for iOS Apple Watch canned responses screenshot 001

Viber Out calling plans, available via the In-App Purchase mechanism, now live on a revamped screen within Viber’s settings. You can buy Viber Out credit in three denominations: $0.99, $4.99 and $9.99.

Viber 6.1 also includes the ability to send, receive and view animated GIF images in chats. “You can now send animated GIFs from your gallery and your friends will receive them in a continuous-loop autoplay,” says the company.

Support for animated GIFs is coming to Viber Desktop soon.

Viber 6.1 for iOS Viber Out plans iPhone screenshot 001

And the last feature: Viber users can now send money from the United States to any of the 200+ Viber markets, via Western Union. Sending money directly to a bank account is also supported, but in about fifty countries in total.

Viber 6.1 highlights

Here’s everything new in this release of Viber:

  • Back up and restore Viber messages: manually save your Viber message history to iCloud and restore with the most recent backup file
  • Animated GIF support: send, receive and view GIFs through any conversation
  • Viber Out calling plans: access your balance and purchase new credits or special low-rate calling plans via a redesigned screen
  • watchOS 2 support: run Viber on Apple Watch OS 2
  • Send money: from the U.S. to virtually anyone in more than 200 countries and territories, powered by Western Union, send cash for pickup from a Western Union agent location worldwide, or send directly to a bank account in nearly 50 countries

Viber is available for free.

Pricing and availability

Viber requires an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with iOS 7.0 or later.

The app is localized in English, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

Viber is available for free in the App Store.

Viber Desktop for Mac is a direct download from the official website.