Rakuten Viber's Ad-Free Premium Chat Service Launches in the US
The chat app's $2-per-month Viber Plus service includes perks like voice message transcription and special stickers.
Rakuten's Viber Plus service is now available in the US.
The Rakuten Viber chat app brought its $2-per-month premium subscription service to the US on Thursday, which provides exclusive features and ad-free access to the chat app.
Viber Plus, which launched internationally in May, includes enhancements to the app like access to paid stickers, the ability to change the Viber app icon and customer service access over live chat.
Viber Plus will also receive an Invisible Mode in August, which allows for checking messages privately without other contacts knowing you've read a text. Transcription of voice messages is also coming to Viber Plus next month.
Signing up for Viber Plus is done from within the Rakuten Viber app, with the subscription being charged through either Apple's App Store or the Google Play Store.
Viber Plus joins Telegram in offering a premium tier, with the latter's premium service focusing on expanding the service's limits on file uploads and download speeds. Meanwhile, Viber rival WhatsApp recently launched the ability to move chat history from one phone to another without needing to use a third-party cloud backup service.
Correction, July 14: An earlier version of this story misstated the availability of voice message transcription in Viber Plus. It will be available in August.