But now the Cyprus-headquartered startup has taken things to a whole new level with its Viber 3 version: it’s released a desktop app for OS X and Windows, making it a full-blown alternative for Skype’s core user base. At the same time, Viber has also beefed up its Android and iOS apps, while introducing support for eight new languages (reaching a total of 27).

“Viber for desktop lets you do pretty much everything that Viber lets you do on your mobile phone, with minor exceptions such as stickers,” Viber CEO Talmon Marco explained to me. “What puts it apart from Skype is how tightly integrated it is with the mobile experience. Skype went from the desktop to the phone. Viber went from mobile to desktop — the implication for the user is amazing.”

Hello desktop

“Amazing” might be a tad hyperbolic, but Viber’s cross-platform integration is genuinely impressive.

As someone who has a greater variety of smartphones and tablets than most (hey, it’s my job), I can attest to one of Skype’s most annoying quirks – its inability to recognize on one device that I’ve already read the day’s messages on another device. This isn’t an issue with Viber.

“Another annoying thing is my wife always complained that would leave Skype running on my computer at home and every message I exchanged with somebody [while on another computer] would beep,” Marco said. “Viber doesn’t – when you get a message, it beeps at both places. Depending on where you answer the message, the next messages only beep on that device.”

Small things, but useful. A far more major advantage is the ability to quickly and simply transfer calls between devices and network types. So you want to start a call on your home desktop, then pop it over to your Wi-Fi connected smartphone, then maintain the call as you leave the house and move onto a cellular network? It should work.

Ironically, I find this all a bit reminiscent of Telefonica’s Tu Go play, which extends the functionality of that carrier’s phone number-linked mobile services to the desktop. Marco doesn’t see Viber as being in direct competition with the cellular giant’s “over-the-top” app but, as the lines between traditional and new-style messaging functionality continue to blur, I think the similarities between the two are worth calling out.

After all, both essentially extend the same services across both mobile and desktop platforms while using the mobile phone number as the key to the user’s identity. When Tu Go came out, it struck me that this number was one of the carrier’s most underappreciated weapons in the fight against third-party communications services – now that Viber’s also exploiting it on the desktop, though, I’m not so sure.

The desktop Viber app also allows video calls, in the style of Skype and Google+. This isn’t available for the mobile apps just yet, though – it will be, Marco promised – and it also doesn’t allow group videoconferencing at this point.

Mobile revamp

Viber’s announcements today aren’t all about the desktop. For one thing, we now have the full new version for BlackBerry, which – as we reported last month — finally includes VoIP functionality. This makes Viber the first mass-market VoIP provider to offer such a feature on the platform.

However, as we noted when covering the beta, it’s only available for versions 5 and 7 of the platform. According to Marco, this is because Viber has to implement IP-based voice on BlackBerry in a slightly roundabout way (“pretty much recording and playing back”), which makes latency a serious issue on BlackBerry OS 6, but less so on 5 and 7. Even on the supported versions, “users should manually set the APN settings to do 3G – there’s no way around that,” he warned.

Users on iOS will find their updated app now includes video messaging capabilities: previously, you could send photos and locations, but not videos. “Last online” status has also been introduced, bringing Viber in line with WhatsApp on that front – Marco admitted that he himself wasn’t sure how useful this would be, given Viber’s push notifications, but “it’s there.”

Other tweaks on iOS include the ability to search contacts specifically for groups, rather than having to scroll through individual contacts to find them, and the introduction of a new voice engine “that provides better performance on low bandwidth or in poor network conditions.” The aforementioned ability to roam between Wi-Fi and 3G coverage is also a new feature, and the overall app design has evolved.

The Android version gets the same features as the iOS app, but also a hefty redesign. It previously looked very much like the iOS version but is now all Holo — as Marco put it, “the iOS version looks iOS and the Android version looks Android.”

Next trick

Viber now has 200 million users, Marco said. This is the same number WhatsApp announced less than a month ago, but it’s important to note that WhatsApp’s 200 million users are active on the service at least once a month, while Viber is only talking about the number of its registered users. That said, Marco claimed that the majority of those users did use the service last month.

Given the fact that Viber VoIP calls only sometimes use Skype-esque peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, often going through Viber’s servers instead, this means the company has to spend a lot of money on servers – “We’re probably one of the largest users of Amazon Web Services,” Marco said, while conceding that his firm is still generating zero revenue.

So when is Viber going to start monetizing its service, then? This year, apparently. According to Marco, the company will start selling stickers to its users, along with other, as-yet-undefined “value adds.”

How about an enterprise play? After all, the addition of the desktop app makes Viber an increasingly credible unified communications service. “We have nothing to announce at this point in time, but we think that the desktop offering gets us closer to this,” Marco said.

Whatever happens, there’s no question that 2013 will be a very exciting year for the rapidly evolving Viber.

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Skype is rolling out the new service Tuesday in the U.K., with the U.S. and Germany to follow in the coming weeks. Worldwide availability is expected over the next four to five months.

Being based in the U.S., I can’t test Skype over the web just yet, although I’d like to since I use a browser-based Chromebook Pixel as my full time computer. In the meantime then, I’ll have to be satisfied with this Skype demonstration video:

Note that in order to get Skype in Outlook.com you’ll have to install a browser plug-in. That tells me that Microsoft likely isn’t using the WebRTC protocol to enable Skype in the browser even though last year it signaled support for it. Firefox and Chrome already support WebRTC, which natively allows for audio and video calls in browsers without any plug-in required.

It would be nice to see Microsoft eventually open up Skype to browsers without requiring Outlook.com. I doubt it will; at least not for a long while. Kudos to Microsoft from a business perspective, however: it’s a smart play  to make the company’s email service more attractive to the millions that already use Skype around the world..

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For $99, project backers get a Skycam webcam that can record video on a micro SD card. Of course, you can access the camera remotely in real-time from practically any connected PC or Mac, tablet or mobile phone running iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8 or BlackBerry. The secret sauce here is the use of Skype.

To set up the Skycam, you simply add it to your Skype account where it becomes one of your favorite contacts. Want to pop in and check on the pets? Just call your Skycam through the standard Skype application:

I’ve actually set up several different remote access webcams in my home over the past few years and I have to say: I think more simplicity is needed for these products. Each camera I’ve used has its own software, which typically isn’t the greatest quality. I often rely on third-party apps to access the cameras, but even these have their quirks. And gaining true remote access to a home-based camera typically requires firewall configuration, static IP addresses and — in some cases — a third-party DNS solution.

That’s why I think this project is on to something. It alleviates all of the challenges I just outlined and makes a remote webcam more of an easy to use appliance. And it does so with software that’s commonly used already. I also like how this isn’t a standard webcam you’d typically use for video chatting: Skycam can be used to monitor a dark or lowly lit room; a feature I like on my existing webcams.

With a built-in microphone and speaker, you can even use Skycam to chat with someone nearby the camera. Of course, you’ll see them, but they won’t see you. I do wish the Skycam had tilt and pan capabilities, but that would be tricky to implement with Skype as the underlying transport solution. And it would complicate what looks to be an economical and simple way to monitor a remote area.

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Libon appeared for iOS in November last year, giving Orange a clear competitor to so-called over-the-top (OTT) applications such as Skype and WhatsApp. Like T-Mobile USA’s Bobsled and Telefonica’s Tu Me, the app provided free HD calls and messaging to other users of the same platform — regardless of their carrier — as well as voicemail transcription.

Now it’s available on Android as well as iOS. According to Giles Corbett of the Orange Vallée R&D department, the Android version is “completely integrated” into the native OS in a way that isn’t possible with iOS (see also, Facebook Home). “For instance, it integrates all of your incoming and outgoing GSM calls and SMSs in all of the conversations,” he noted, adding that setup, including the redirection of voicemail, could all be controlled from within the app.

On the iOS side, meanwhile, the new version — to be set live on Tuesday — will remain a step ahead of its Android counterpart, with the integration of audio chat (as in, conducting an asynchronous conversation using audio messages) and photo messaging. That said, Corbett said this functionality would be added to the Android version in the coming weeks.

I asked Corbett how Orange’s OTT efforts were keeping pace with developments such as Telefonica’s Tu Go, which gives O2 U.K. contract customers a Wi-Fi-capable app through which they can make and receive calls and texts using their existing number, with charges being integrated with their standard bill.

Corbett responded by pointing out that Libon creates a similar experience for customers of certain Orange operators. For example, customers of Orange’s low-cost Sosh brand in France can use Libon to call landlines and mobile numbers on “advantageous terms”, with call recipients seeing the caller’s standard number and — for calls to certain countries, at least — with charges coming out of their standard allowance.

Meanwhile, Orange Poland is to adopt a similar strategy, and by the end of June Libon will be integrated with core Orange services in 5 countries. For those who just want to use it as an OTT app alongside core services from other carriers, availability stretches to 95 countries. “It’s a way for Orange to reach and explore new customer bases,” Corbett said.

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In a statement on Wednesday, the Cyprus-based startup said the new version of its BlackBerry app, which was previewed in January, included free calls to other Viber users for those on BlackBerry OS5 and OS7, as well as “performance improvements” for OS5 and various other bug fixes. However, BlackBerry 10 – the make-or-break latest version of the platform – is not supported.

“BlackBerry is one of the most important markets for us and represents our third largest user base,” Viber CEO Talmon Marco said. “We are thrilled to bring this community free voice calling, letting them communicate freely with all of their important contacts across multiple platforms.”

The release means that, over two years after Viber first hit the scene, the only remaining major platforms on which Viber is a voiceless, text-and-photo-only service are Nokia Series 40 and Samsung’s Bada OS. The omission of BlackBerry 10 support isn’t as crazy as it might sound — most BlackBerry users will still be on older versions of the platform, and the company is still launching new BlackBerry OS7 devices in emerging markets.

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Not every Windows Phone 8 model can take advantage of the HD video calling feature, but the software should also improve video quality on low- to mid-range smartphones while also smartly adjusting video quality based on connection speeds:

“We have significantly improved video calling quality for all users, offering VGA video on lower end handsets and 720p HD on higher-end devices including the Nokia Lumia 920, HTC 8X and Samsung Ativ S. And the app even intelligently determines the best quality available based on the speed of your connection. Additionally, we’ve added landscape mode for calls, and the ability to switch between front and back cameras for you to chat in the most comfortable way possible.”

Given that Microsoft purchased Skype for $8.5 billion in May, 2011, it shouldn’t surprise that the video calling software will be improved first for Microsoft’s own smartphone platform before iOS, Android or other mobile operating systems. Hopefully, however, these will see support for HD video calling in Skype over time.

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That may sound like a small change, but it’s pretty fundamental to Transferwise’s future. Here’s why.

The previous system involved three steps (or, from the customer’s perspective, two). An example: a British customer would go to Transferwise’s website and say that he wanted to send £100 ($151), for example, from the UK to Germany. He would then need to visit his own UK bank’s online banking facility to transfer the £100 to Transferwise’s UK account. The startup would then take the euro equivalent out of its German funds – stocked up by users in that country – and make a local payment in Germany to the intended recipient.

The introduction of debit card payments removes that second step, meaning the customer can now do everything needed in one go on Transferwise’s website. This removes a major source of friction, and I would be surprised if it didn’t accelerate the company’s growth quite quickly (Transferwise did £10 million in currency traffic in its first year, up until the end of February 2012, and by the end of 2012 it had done £50 million).

“We made it simpler and faster for our customers,” CEO Taavet Hinrikus, who was once Skype’s first employee, told me.

According to Hinrikus, Transferwise’s customer base largely consists of individuals and small businesses, and the average transfer amount is around £1,300. The company offers savings of up to 85 percent on standard international transfer rates, levying a £1 charge on transfers up to £200 and typically just 0.5 percent on larger transfers. Exchange rates are taken straight from the interbank market without any fiddling of the going rate (as happens with some banks and wire transfer companies).

There are limits to what Transferwise can do, though, and regulation is unsurprisingly (and understandably) the limiting factor. Within Europe, if you’re a financial services company and you’re given the all-clear by one national financial regulator (the UK’s Financial Services Authority or FSA, in Transferwise’s case) then you’re fine to operate anywhere on the continent. However, the company does not have regulatory clearance in other parts of the world, such as the U.S.

For that reason, although Transferwise can handle transfers from Europe to the U.S., paying out in U.S. dollars, it can’t handle the reverse transaction. The same will apply to Canadian dollars, which the platform will start supporting in a week or so. You may be wondering how that works if Transferwise can’t actually have customers in the U.S. or Canada — according to Hinrikus, the company uses “large corporate peers” on that side of the Atlantic, including large companies sending money to Europe, other trading platforms and “financial markets”.

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The carriers hate OTT apps because – they claim – they don’t make any money off them. This is nonsense, of course: when they’re not being blocked or throttled by the operators, the use of these apps drives the sales of new devices, and of the data services themselves. The real reason carriers hate them is because they’re often better rivals to the carriers’ own legacy services, including voice (Skype, for example) and SMS (WhatsApp).

And so the carriers have been experimenting with services that act as direct rivals to the likes of Skype and WhatsApp: Orange has Libon, T-Mobile USA has Bobsled and Telefonica has Tu Me. The problem is, these apps all just do what their third-party rivals do. For the carriers that are putting them out, they act as little more than brand ambassadors. They don’t actually create much value for the carriers’ existing customers, nor are their new platforms innovative enough to lure users from third-party rivals.

Until now. Someone has finally got the point. The carrier in question is Telefonica again, and the app – now available for O2 UK contract customers only – is called Tu Go. The proposition is very simple. Using the Tu Go app on Android, iOS or the PC, subscribers can make and receive calls and texts over Wi-Fi using their normal mobile number. The calls and texts come out of their standard allowances.

But surely it’s better to use a new-generation platform, I hear you say. Not always. For example, I work from home and I call people using Skype an awful lot, largely because the mobile coverage in my apartment is dreadful. Skype’s cheaper than mobile in most cases, but it doesn’t show the recipient of my calls the phone number printed on my business cards. Also, it means having multiple billing accounts. With a service like Tu Go, problem solved.

This isn’t trying to create yet another platform. All it’s doing is using the power of the app to bring legacy functionality into the modern age; to make it more useful. Telefonica has realized that you don’t fight the upstart by creating a separate platform to your core product: you adapt and extend your core product instead.

Will it be enough to fend off the upstarts? For some users, it will; for those who gave up on their mobile operator a while back, it won’t. But it’s the first OTT app I’ve seen from a carrier that doesn’t feel like they’re flailing around in response to their IP-only rivals. Having covered this stuff for a while, I could weep with joy.

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Skype is reportedly testing video messaging options for mobile users today. The service would let people leave a video-based message for their friends. I can see a whole new variant on the “wish-you-were-here” picture messages I send that could involve panoramic views or the local soundscape (good for concerts and birdcalls, bad for when I’m in New York City).

A few weeks ago, Twitter launched Vine, to let people record 6-second videos and post them easily from their mobile, and Facebook is testing a voice messaging application that will let you leave a voice-based message for friends from Facebook. While the Facebook example isn’t video-based it drives home the larger point: Our web interactions are pushing forward to mirror our real-world interactions as much as possible, which means that our bandwidth demands and our mobile devices need to keep up.

On the mobile device side, we’re doing fine. Processing, cameras and microphones on smartphones are enabling us to record quality videos, voice and images. In the case of images we even have enough processing power for some editing. But on the bandwidth side, it’s unclear if we’re going to have the capability to share our efforts. That’s why on the wireless and wireline side we need to keep adding capacity and lowering costs. Conducting a video call today sucks up a lot of bandwidth, but there are ways to reduce the impact on the network and drive down costs for consumers and the operators.

When I look at the increasingly visual nature of the web and the influx of video options for communication I realize that we can finally escape the limits that technology has imposed on how we communicate over long distances. Letter writing, postcards, voice calls and even static web pages are poor substitutes when you want to share an experience with someone, and they are substitutes that are driven by the limits of the technology at the time. Many of those limits are no longer there.

Adapting to this will require us to ditch centuries of habits and preferences, but it opens up much higher quality ways for people to communicate. We will still drag these other forms of communication into our video-based future but we’ll be able to choose when an email makes the most sense or when we’d rather stick with voice.

As I scroll down the pages of an online catalog, I am grateful that I have the bandwidth at home to load pictures quickly so I can see the details in the product. I can’t wait for the ability to see things in 3D — or even set up a quick video call with someone who is near the product for a closer look.

I assume my six-year-old daughter — who refuses to take phone calls from people she loves unless there’s a video component — will resort to voice only for strangers and business-related conversations. Getting to that point means more work needs to be done to seamlessly integrate the options available to people much like Apple has done with FaceTime on its platform, and then to spread that to all platforms.

Companies like Skype, BlueJeans Networks, Polycom, and countless others are all trying to make this real as are the people pushing for the WebRTC standards. Right now it’s a mish-mash of standards, platforms and options, but video will coalesce into something that as simple as picking up a phone or mailing a letter is today.

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Skype’s increase of nearly 51 billion minutes in 2012 is more than twice that achieved by all international carriers in the world, combined. This is not a new story. As far back as 2009 Skype became the largest carrier of international voice traffic worldwide.

Now clearly telcos still have plenty of international voice minutes, but with Skype and others chipping away at the growth the future is clear. Phone companies need traffic to grow to offset the falling prices of long-distance minutes, and this isn’t happening. From the report:

International migration, the rapid uptake of mobile phones in developing countries, and steady reductions in international call prices—especially in the form of flat-rate (and even free) calling plans—have contributed to traffic increases. Nevertheless, recent growth rates are well below the 13% average that carriers could count on to offset price declines over much of the past 20 years.

The regulatory regimes that make telco voice calls so high must be adjusted and carriers must seek other avenues for revenue. Both of these things are happening. The disparity in pricing between telcos and Skype’s calling is brought in part by the different ways governments regulate the telco voice network and how it regulates IP. Skype can avoid many of the fees associated with calling overseas because it only has to pay to reach a number at the end point if it’s not a Skype to-Skype call.

It may seem academic, but those regulatory regimes are a big topic of discussion both in the controversial ITU telecoms regulation attempts internationally as well as AT&T’s attempts to dump its TDM network here in the U.S. As the world switches to IP, regulators and telcos are leery of leaving IP unregulated, although many a proponent argues that’s what they should do to encourage the continuations of lower-cost calling options like Skype.

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