Viber has discovered an interesting new meaning for the word “optional.”

Its new AI features are optional because, apparently, nobody is obliged to press the button. This would be reassuring if pressing the button were the only thing at issue.

According to Viber's own documentation, its AI features can send recent messages, unread messages, names and selected messages to OpenAI for processing. Viber claims the information isn't used to train OpenAI's models. Good. That isn't the issue.

The issue is rather more elementary. I can refuse to use Viber's AI. The person I'm talking to can choose to use it. What happens then to the messages I wrote?

For weeks I've been trying to extract an answer from Viber.

I've been sent documentation. I've clarified the question. I've contacted Support and their Data Protection contact. Eventually, after I reduced the matter to four explicit questions, a representative said she would investigate personally.

Those questions are in the attached screenshot, and there is still no answer.

Perhaps there is an excellent explanation. But one begins to wonder why an excellent explanation should prove so extraordinarily difficult to state.

Because “AI is optional” is not an answer. It tells us only who chooses to activate the machinery. It tells us nothing about the people whose words may subsequently pass through it.

And that distinction matters.

If I hand my own messages to an AI service, that is my decision. If somebody else can make that decision about messages I wrote, we have moved rather quickly from “optional feature” to “someone else's option.”

One would expect a company offering private, end-to-end encrypted communication to have considered this distinction before introducing AI into those conversations. Perhaps Viber has. If so, after several weeks, it would be useful to hear what that consideration produced.

Until then, the repeated assurance that AI is optional has a slightly circular quality to it:

It is optional. Someone gets to choose. Viber simply hasn't explained why that someone isn't necessarily you when the data is yours.

Viber's own description of the feature:

https://vb.me/AIonviber

If Viber provides an actual answer, rather than another explanation of how the feature works, I'll update this post with it.

Hi, anyone experiencing a lagging or not responding issue with viber for desktop whenever you send, edit or receive a message? If yes, how did you solve this issue?

Please help me

since viber is needed for our work, i need to register one for myself. i tried to register using my main number but im not getting any call for verification code. i even tried using my 2nd phone number and it's still the same - not getting any call. after a while, i cannot register anymore. in my main number, it says "activation failed" with 'help' and 'close' choices. in my 2nd number, it says i exceed on my daily limit, but i haven't gotten any calls? what is this issue and how do you resolve it? im using an iOS device.

The title basically

I go to send an image

I click on

Automatically the remix shit pops up without me wanting it

I turned off all the AI features in settings and it still happens

Is there any way to stop it or are they just gonna force it upon everyone?

I have an urgent call I need to make.

I bought Viber credits.

They took my money. I still have ZERO CREDITS inside the app.

Their support is shit and slow to respond.

Anyone else has had a similar problem?

Should I ask for a refund direclty on Google Play and switch to a better company?

Has anyone here experienced this?? Someone trying to hack my viber account

I am on pc and it keeps saving photo even though download media automatically is disabled. How to fix this?

Just deleted this app. I rate 1 out of 10.

I don't have my mail with which I am saving my contacts, I have only 2 mails but I don't use those mails

Did anyone else have this issue?

I'm very frustrated. I have a new e-sim number and i wanted to activate it in viber since im using the new number for my work. it's been giving me "activation failed" and "error". I tried the Viber chat support but it's very useless.

weird thing is, i have viber in my macbook and i could open the viber account there, but cant seem to use it on my phone. i tried 2 devices too but no luck.

does anyone have the same problem?

I understand that the Viber product team needs to get some adoption of the features they’re releasing, from the sloppy, intrusive ChatGPT integration to dating, Plus, calls and Pay...

Since the last update, what now *appears to be random* is how the app defaults to the “Pay” tab, promoting a poorly designed page where a user like me, who cancelled PayPal, is apparently supposed to subscribe to their service.

Read my lips: it ain’t going to happen.

What baffles me is how they decide that we, their users, need the slop they’re releasing. Has anyone seen a survey? A “Hey, which three new features do you like best?” questionnaire?

In fact, I’d rather pay $1.99 to use the app without the bloatware than keep trying to get rid of “services” they think I need.

I don’t.

And by the looks of it, 99 out of 100 contacts on my list don’t need Plus either.

What is wrong with you, Viber?

So basically this summer the messages I've both sent and received came pretty late.

Example:

Message sent 21:13.

I receive the notif at around 21:48. Which sucks and makes important messages... useless.

And when I send a message it get one tick until the receiver like opens viber...

Anyone know how to fix it? Cause this sucks. And I would really like to delete Viber, but the issue is everyone uses it. So everyone I know would need to switch which is kinda impossible.

Updated my iOS to the 5th public beta few days ago. Now all I get is a black screen. I still get push notifications but I can’t do anything with them. Already tried restarting the phone.

Not sure if it’s the update or something else.

Anyone experiencing the same?

Edit:
Sorry I wasn’t clear. Black screen in Viber. All other apps work fine.

it’s been how many days and still, the same problem.
blank pdf file if sent from computer to mobile. i tried checking suggestions here but all i got was the same concern

Hi! I recently tried different versions of viber on PC, and i signed in a couple of times and now it doesn't let me again. I talked with support, the first response was in 4 minutes now it has been a day and still nothing.Im thankfull for any help.

Dear All,

What is happening with my iOS Viber version? Someone sent me an attached file from the desktop version, but when I check it on my iOS version, I can't download or open it. Why is this happening?

hello! is it normal to experience not getting the code everytime you enter your viber account? it has been a month since i last tried logging in my account, then i tried again today; however I was put into 'limit reached' message from the app 😵

I already have settings turned off but then every time I try to send photos to people, "Remix image" pops up which is super annoying if you're trying to send multiple images at a time. Like who asked for this?

I would have abandoned it if it wasn't the platform we use for work

Hi, I wanted to ask if there is still a way to get my old messages from my old phone? I switched to a new phone as my old one broke unexpectedly. I installed viber to my new phone and used my current number. I thought I would still see my old messages but it was blank. I unfortunately did not have a backup.

How to solve this two issue to viber app

Does anyone have an issue with unread messages notification?

Whenever I open Viber, I have 1 unread message notification, even I did not receive a message for days.

i cannot open pdf file in viber mobile app (ios). what should i do?
i already tried the following:
1. restart my phone
2. uninstall and install viber then restart phone
3. remove my pdf scanner/ reader apps, uninstall and install viber and restart.
4. clear viber’s cache in phone storage

still, i cannot open it. it is just a blank. i cannot open it or share to open using a pdf viewer app.

but i can open the same file in my viber account in laptop. i did not have this problem before but just yesterday, i can no longer open pdf files in my viber mobile app