Free International Calling & Texting App for Family Travel

by | Jan 10, 2014 | Families, Family Travel, Marketing, Moms, Parenting, Technology, Travel

 

Screen Shot 2014-01-06 at 2.31.00 PMA Happy New Year Gift to you and your family: you must download Viber a free International calling and texting app for family travel!  We hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday season whether you hit the road for a family adventure or enjoyed a staycation at home.

When we kicked off the holiday season by traveling to Grand Cayman for our 20th anniversary this year, one of our biggest concerns was how to keep in touch with our children and family back home. Our current cell phone carrier is outrageous for international calling and data plans so we were looking for inexpensive options.  We had to tackle the problem quickly since we also have to keep in touch with family in Canada.

Luckily,  during our Grand Cayman trip, friends who are frequent international travelers and have college aged children abroad  introduced us to Viber a free international calling & texting app for family travel. Viber allows you to call and text internationally for free. However, the trick is that the person you are calling must have the app.  This app is a nice complement to Skype because you can text for free while talking.

Where they get you is if you want to call a non-app user you can pay for minutes. However, it seems to be cheaper than many of the international plans of the main wireless carriers which could make it helpful during emergencies when traveling.

Key  details:

  • The App is available for both iOS and Android users: in the App store it should be the one with the purple phone
  • Download the app to your phone in a location where you have WIFI and can plug in to avoid using up your data plan and phone memory although Viber seems to use less than most apps
  • Find a friend and or family member to do the same so you can test the texting and calling functions
  • Viber automatically syncs with your contacts and knows which of your friends have Viber, making it easy to stay in touch on the cheap
  • Be sure to allow the push function so you know that you have messages. Also, Viber says that you can keep the app open without sucking up your phone’s battery.  We have been experimenting and so far this seems to be the case
  • You can also use Viber on your laptop like Skype
  • When your phone is locked, you can still access Viber
  • You can also send videos and photos

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With Family in Canada, we need free international calling & texting

So could this be the future of international calling and texting?  What tools do you use when you travel internationally?  Be sure to check out Viber, a Free International Calling & Texting App for Family Travel.

 

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