VoIP app Viber adds smilies and custom ringtones, forgets off switch

Smilies, group chats, and system sounds

Updates for VoIP and chat app Viber are few and far between, but they managed to squeeze one in before this year runs out.

New: smilies. Not a lot of them, but you gotta start somewhere. Viber now has stickers (very big smilies) too. Messaging on Viber may seem irrelevant, because if your gadget runs Viber it can run WhatsApp too and that's the SMS replacement of choice for most of the world. But if WhatsApp stops its ever-extending free trials and really turns into a paid app, competing apps like Viber and imo may take over.

The Viber programmers didn't just add eye candy, they threw in a bit of function too. Viber now does group chats with up to 40 people, so you can do big time group sexting.  And now you can tell Viber to use your Android system sounds instead of its own built-in ringtones.

A few updates ago Viber picked up the annoying habit of opening the "all contacts" tab by default (even with "show all contacts" switched off in the settings), which is useless for most people because most of their contacts are not on Viber. But now Viber opens in the Viber contacts tab again. Unfortunately you still can't block contacts, because Viber thinks you want to talk with anyone who's in your Android phone book. It didn't occur to the Viber team that you may add some people (like your ex or your boss) to your phone book to block their calls and messages. Viber won't let you set individual ringtones for contacts, so you can't ignore contacts by setting a silent ringtone for them.

Speaking of phone functions (the core business of Viber): voicemail for Viber would be a welcome addition. Especially if it comes with an option to send some contacts straight to your voicemailbox.

Viber still won't shut up

There's no easy way to switch Viber off or stop it from autostarting everytime you boot your phone. There's an off switch, but it doesn't work because Viber believes that you want to be available for all calls whenever your phone has a live internet connection. They probably never heard of international data charges. Tip: use AFWall+ or the firewall from avast to keep Viber away from your expensive data roaming connection.

The off switch built into Viber is not really an off switch, because the Cloud to Device Messaging service keeps listening for incoming Viber communications and will launch the app if something comes in. You can prevent Viber autostarts with apps like Gemini App Manager and ROM Toolbox, but that's inconvenient, requires root access, and you need to be a bit tech literate to make it work. Of course you can freeze Viber when you want it to keep quiet, and unfreeze it when you're available again. App Quarantine will do it for free, from the app itself or from a widget.

Why does Viber refuse to add a real off switch? There may be a commercial reason for not including an off switch that works. Viber will add paid services to its free features, and a Viber that doesn't run is a Viber that doesn't make money. But really, Viber, sometimes you need to be incommunicado for Viber calls without killing your internet connection or going into airplane mode. Stop behaving like a bunch of stubborn fools and go add a switch to put control where it needs to be: in the hands of the user.

Finally, Viber needs a public API so it can be part of a multi-network app. Chat and VoIP fragmentation is getting worse, so something needs to be done.

• Viber

some competing apps:

• Skype
• Vonage
• CSipSimple
• Nimbuzz
• imo
• WhatsApp

Liquid Bear still plays last.fm on Android

When last.fm killed its radio stations for most of the world, KLastFM and CoboltFM stopped playing.

But that doesn't mean that last.fm radio for Android is dead, because alternative last.fm player Liquid Bear rocks on.

Liquid Bear uses a trick to bypass all those silly last.fm restrictions: it uses your last.fm data to make playlists, and then pulls the songs from vk.com (the russian answer to Facebook). This means that you need a last.fm account and a vk.com account, but you can simply make an "empty" vk.com account with a fantasy name to tap into its music collection.

That's a clever solution that other apps might use as well. CoboltFM and KLastFM could use the vk.com route, or they could play custom last.fm radio stations by pulling the songs from Grooveshark. Grooveshark clients like Dood's Music Streamer and TinyShark could integrate last.fm in a similar way.

Liquid Bear has three main tabs. The left tab is the current playlist, which is built from whatever you select in the right tab. This tab lets you make last.fm-like radio stations based on tags, artists, your own last.fm library or the music libraries of your friends, etc. The central tab shows what's playing now, with album art and playback controls.

Want to see lyrics? You can load 'em from the playback tab (hit the drop-shaped icon) or by long-tapping a song in the playlist.

The playlist is also the place where Liquid Bear shows that it needs some work done. You can't change the order of the songs in the list, the search box shows white text on a light grey background (it may be different on your phone or tablet), deleting songs ahead of the currently playing track pauses playback, and removing songs already played stops the current track and skips to the next. The playback screen shows elapsed time but doesn't show the song duration, even though it could: if you pull the playback slider it shows how much time remains, so Liquid Bear could show that in the empty space next to the forward button.
Edit: an update added remaining time to the playback screen.

But these are minor shortcomings for an app that does what other last.fm players can do no more.

Liquid Bear is free, and I couldn't find any ads in it. It's definitely worth a try, so head to the Google Play Store to get a copy.

• Liquid Bear

Last.fm won't sing for Android anymore, Grooveshark app Dood's Music Streamer keeps playing (and so does Liquid Bear)

Last.fm is dead

The founders of last.fm left the company a long time ago. CBS, the current owners, try to milk the worlds most popular music service to the last penny. As a result, last.fm radio streaming is now only available in less than 5% of the countries on the planet. Germans, americans, and british can listen for free on the last.fm website, or for money in the desktop client. In Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Brazil you can listen with a paid subscription. The rest of the world is not allowed to listen to last.fm, not even if you pay.

There were ways around these ridiculous geographic restrictions, but no more. Alternative last.fm apps CoboltFM and KLastFM are really dead now. Last.fm, pulled the plug on free streaming for almost everyone, and most of the planet can't stream at all.

Grooveshark rocks on

Are you a last.fm refugee looking for alternatives? Then Grooveshark is for you. It's a global jukebox with more music than anyone else, and with the right apps it's available worldwide. For free.

My favourite Grooveshark app is Dood's Music Streamer. You can search music, play it, download it, and it can turn your play queue into custom radio stations. It scrobbles everything you play to last.fm too.

Dood's Music Streamer plays custom radio stations based on your play queue. It's not as good as the custom last.fm radio stations, because Grooveshark only looks at your current play queue whereas last.fm uses your entire scrobble history to build your personal radio station. But with last.fm being dead and buried, Grooveshark radio in Dood's Music Streamer is better than nothing.

There are other Android Grooveshark apps, but they don't turn your playlists into radio stations.

Update: Liquid Bear still plays last.fm radio on Android.

• Dood's Music Streamer
• Liquid Bear

VideoMix streams movies and tv shows on your Android phone or tablet

December 27 update: Google made VideoMix remove the adult category, because Play Store rules suck and Larry Page is still a virgin. You can get the uncensored movies back by restoring a backup of VideoMix v1.1.1. Tip: use a backup app to switch between v1.1.1 and the latest version.

Movies and tv shows from many places

Movie and tv show streamer Ice Stream is dead. Nobody knows if it will resurrect or if it's gone forever, but the good news is that there's another app to stream or download video to your Android device. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it does the job.

VideoMix starts up with a screen full of links to movies (probably recently added, or most popular, or whatever), but it's easy to tap to the content you want through the icon bar on top of the start screen. If you know what you're looking for, tap the search icon in the top right of the screen. If you want to browse through the many movies and tv shows available, hit the icon left of the search icon to get a list of content divided in tabs for movies and tv shows, and more tabs for things like genres. VideoMix links to a truckload of movies and tv shows, and streams them directly to your favourite Android video player.

Sometimes VideoMix can't find a single file for the video you're looking for, but that doesn't happen very often. It usually finds many sources for every movie or tv show. The free version only lets you stream from one of the links it finds, but that's usually enough to play the file so there's no need to buy the app.

Want to know if there's a new episode for your favourite tv show out there? VideoMix comes with optional notifications to tell you if there's something new for you to watch

Companion apps

MX Player played every VideoMix file I threw at it. VideoMix won't download files to your memory card by itself, but if you want to download videos instead of streaming them you can send them from VideoMix to Advanced Download Manager.

Tip: if you want to have a choice between streaming and downloading, do NOT set a video app as default action when the "complete action using..." screen pops up. If you accidentally set a default action, you can fire up your app manager and clear the settings for VideoMix to get your choices back. VideoMix could make things easier by including the Android share menu. This way you could set a default video player and send links to the download manager anyway. Maybe they'll do it in a future update?

The VideoMix notifications for new episodes require some autostart triggers, which you can kill with apps like Gemini App Manager or ROM Toolbox. If you installed Advanced Download Manager, you may also want to switch its autostart triggers off.

Get it while supplies last

VideoMix is available in the Google Play Store. If it's no longer there, a Google search for "VideoMix apk" will get you a list of many copies of the app, but you never know what additional payload they may carry. So get a copy from the Play Store before Google kicks it out.

• Video Mix (Google Play Store)

December 27 update: Google made VideoMix remove the adult category, because Play Store rules suck and Larry Page is still a virgin. You can get the uncensored movies back by restoring a backup of VideoMix v1.1.1. Tip: use a backup app to switch between v1.1.1 and the latest version.