A favorite of Ukrainians: 11 secret Viber features you didn't know about

For the third year in a row, the Viber mobile app has been named the most popular messenger among Ukrainians. It seems that there are no longer any people who have not installed it on their smartphones. Even online stores and Ukrposhta have created accounts there.

OBOZREVATEL explains how to use the messenger more conveniently and which features are the most useful.

Read messages and hide them

Everyone is familiar with situations when you really need to read a message in a messenger, but you don't want to show it to your interlocutor. This is especially true when you're corresponding with an ex-boyfriend.

How to do it? In the settings, go to the Privacy tab and turn off the Viewed option. But this feature has the opposite effect: you won't know if other users are viewing your messages either.

Hide notifications

The Android version of Viber has an option to hide notifications that appear on the lock screen, so no one will know about your secret correspondence.

How to do it?

1. In the settings, go to the "Screen lock and security" tab, then go to "Notification settings" and select "Don't show notifications" in the "On locked screen" option (this feature is available for Android only).
2. But you can go even further and hide the conversation from the chat list entirely. Here's how: on iPhone, swipe the chat to the left, click on "Hide" and set a password. On Android, hold your finger on the chat, click Hide, and set a password. To find the chat, just type the code in the search bar.

Find out who read your message

In a public chat, you can see who has read a message and who hasn't yet. Sometimes this feature can be very useful, for example, when you need to change the time of a meeting.

How do you do it? Press and hold your finger on the message, select Details, and you'll see a list of people who have already read the message.

Send full-size photos

Messengers have long been our go-to way to share photos. But you may have noticed that the pictures you receive in Viber look good only on your phone screen. And when you open them on a computer or tablet, they lose their quality. Probably, the problem lies in the sending method. It's very easy to fix.

How to do it? Go to the Data and Media section, select Photo Quality, and then select Excellent. To send a photo in high quality, just hold down the ellipsis symbol in the chat menu and then: "Photo" for Android; "Send in original size" for iOS.

Save memory and battery life

Modern messengers have started to consume a lot of energy, which affects the battery life of your smartphone. In addition, they take up a lot of space in the built-in memory. You can solve both problems yourself.

The issue of large space is solved by disabling automatic saving of videos and photos to the gallery.

How to do it? In the app settings, go to the Data and Media section, and then uncheck the box next to Save to Gallery (this only works on iOS). There you can also specify the time for storing any media files (Keep media files).

To save energy, you can deactivate the Always On feature in the settings.

Hide your online status

Viber allows other users to see if you are online. This can be a problem when you don't want to respond to certain contacts. Fortunately, the program allows you to become invisible.

How to do it? In the settings, go to Privacy and then turn off the Online option. Remember: you can change your network status settings only once a day.

Use a translator

Another convenient feature built right into the messenger is the translator. It is powered by Google Translate and allows you to quickly translate messages written in a foreign language and vice versa.

How to use it? Go to the message you want to translate. Scroll through the menu to the Translate option. Follow the instructions to set the desired language.

Hide from strangers

You don't want people you don't know to see your picture. With this feature, your profile picture will be available only to people who are listed in your contacts.

How to do it? In the Privacy section, turn off the "Show my photo" option.

Use secret chats

For especially important conversations, you can use secret chats, which significantly increase the level of confidentiality of communication. First, your interlocutor will not be able to send messages to other chats. Secondly, if one of the participants takes a screenshot, everyone will be notified. Secret chat also has a timer that makes messages disappear after a certain time.

How to do it? Go to the Chats tab or use the search. Click on the contact's name, then tap Information and settings. On the page that opens, tap Hidden chat.

Block annoying ads

Without realizing it, we subscribe to promotional emails in stores when we sign up for a discount card or register on a website. But when the number of notifications exceeds a dozen, it becomes really annoying. It turns out that you can forget about annoying ads. Here's how.

How to do it? Go to the Settings section, select Calls and Messages, and turn off the Receive service messages option.

Chat in groups

Viber has gained such popularity largely due to the ability to make free internet calls. Initially, only two people could talk, but now users can chat in groups with up to four people at once.

How to do it: Open the chat list and create a new group. Then select up to four people and click the purple check mark or Done. To make a call, go to the created group and click on the icon in the form of a telephone.