Viber’s encryption will come with varying levels of security, the company said, which will show up in the form of a color-coded lock on the right side of the screen.Ī grey lock will mean the conversation (voice or text) is fully encrypted.
So the fact that Viber had not launched it until now - with only a gradual rather than universal roll out, and just weeks after WhatsApp’s news - is both a sign of the times (what users are increasingly wanting and demanding these days) but also a mark of just how competitive the messaging app landscape remains today, where everyone is making sure that no rival has more features that it does. Michael Shmilov, Viber’s COO, told TechCrunch that the company has been working on an end-to-end encryption feature for “years.” Today, just about every big messaging app encrypts your messages in transit, but more secure features like end-to-end encryption mean that service providers cannot access the message at any point at all.
