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Tag: Rakuten VIber

  • Greet and treat your loved ones easily with Share Treats: only on Rakuten Viber

    Greet and treat your loved ones easily with Share Treats: only on Rakuten Viber

    Rakuten Viber, a global leader in private and secure messaging and voice-based communication and a leading chat app in the Philippines, has partnered with Korean online-to-offline casual mobile commerce company Share Treats to introduce the first-of-its-kind gifting experience in South East Asia with Treats on Rakuten Viber. Filipinos can now greet and treat the special people in their lives directly in the Rakuten Viber app, as well as request gifts for any occasion, be it a birthday, a regular fine day, or an upcoming holiday like Mother’s Day.

    Thanks to their partnership with Rakuten Viber, Share Treats has become the first company to introduce the gifticon technology (a combination of ‘gift’ and ‘icon’) in the Philippines. With this technology, which originated in South Korea, online gift-giving is as easy as sending a message — and comes with a plethora of options to suit every taste and budget. 

    With Treats on Rakuten Viber, users can now send online gift cards to their friends and family — from beloved food chains like Jollibee, Dunkin’, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Auntie Anne’s, The Bistro Group, and McDonald’s, to essential staples like the convenience store giant 7-Eleven and trusted pharmacy Mercury Drug. They can also share online gift passes for shopping destinations, such as The SM Store and Lazada, or services, like the FoodPanda food delivery and motorcycle taxi app Angkas. They can even give vouchers for e-wallets such as GCash and Maya or gift codes for GrabGifts. 

    You can find the gifting chatbot via the app’s search function or by clicking “Send Birthday Treat” in the one-to-one chat when you see a birthday notification for a person in your contacts. To start giving and getting gifts: 

    • Subscribe to the Treats on Rakuten Viber chatbot. 
    • Pick a brand and a specific treat. 
    • Pay through options like GCash, Maya, and GrabPay. 
    • Select a Rakuten Viber friend and send the treat! 

    Similarly, to request a treat, simply choose a brand, or an item from the brand, click ‘Request’, and send it to any contact. 

    As Mother’s Day approaches, Share Treats and Rakuten Viber provide a way to express love and gratitude to mothers — and a variety of options to make the day truly special. Users can now send heartfelt gifts with just a few taps on their smartphones, seamlessly and regardless of distance. Soon, users will be able to create and see their contacts’ WishLists to make the gifting experience even easier. 

    “It is a significant milestone in digital gifting that allows Filipinos to send greetings with treats while prioritizing ease of use, security, and efficiency”, says Hong Bae Lee, CEO and president of Share Treats Innovation. “Rakuten Viber already has millions of Filipino users who are relying on this superapp to stay connected with their loved ones. It’s an essential part of everyday conversations. Adding the Share Treats experience to the app allows them to give gifts as easily as sending a message.” “Rakuten Viber is thrilled to partner with Share Treats because it’s part of our goal as a superapp to enrich the overall experience of our users and meet their needs at every touch point,” explains Karla Banua, sales lead, Advertising in APAC at Rakuten Viber. “Given the Filipino’s rich gift-giving culture, this partnership with Share Treats allows our users to strengthen connections and express their thoughtfulness in exciting new ways.”

    Gadgets Magazine 17

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  • TLDR? Rakuten Viber’s new AI-powered feature summarizes group chats in an instant

    TLDR? Rakuten Viber’s new AI-powered feature summarizes group chats in an instant

    Rakuten Viber, a global leader in private and secure messaging and calls as well as the leading communications app in the Philippines, has leveraged the technology of OpenAI to launch an AI summarizer feature for unread messages in group chats. Developed to meet the needs of millions of busy users, the cutting-edge solution offers a seamless and rapid way to distill essential information from up to 100 unread messages in a chat into a concise summary. 

    The AI summarizer extracts the most important parts of a user’s group conversations and, in an instant, concisely conveys in bullet points what has been discussed, not only saving time and energy but also enhancing decision-making and productivity. The rapid delivery helps users stay up-to-date without going back through a long scroll of messages.

    Initially focusing on group chats, the AI summarizer will cater to the most popular form of communication among Viber users. They will be able to pull together key decisions, action items, and discussions to easily use as a reference point. Imagine the convenience this will allow for parents managing their children’s school or sports team events through collaborative discussions, family members planning a birthday party for a loved one, or groups of friends making travel arrangements. 

    Activation is effortless: users entering a group chat with unread messages will receive a prompt to obtain an optional summary of the missed part of the conversation. Importantly, these summaries are visible only to users who request them, ensuring privacy and confidentiality.

    Data privacy and safety were top-of-mind considerations in the development of this feature. The AI chat summary content does not include any identifiers beyond usernames, so specific conversations cannot be externally connected to any group members. Additionally, Viber does not access or save conversations or summaries on its servers, creating a secure and private user experience.

    “We’re constantly seeking new and innovative ways to make our users’ lives easier and simpler,” said Ofir Eyal, CEO of Rakuten Viber. “That’s why we’re harnessing the power of generative AI to save them time and make sure they don’t miss any important conversations: From classmates discussing school projects to friends or family making weekend plans on the go, our users can get up to speed in a flash on anything they might have missed.”

    The AI summarizer feature is gradually rolling out to users in the Philippines, the US, Ukraine, Japan, Bulgaria, and Poland, with more countries to follow soon. It supports iOS and Android platforms and comprehends more than 50 languages.

    Gadgets Magazine 4

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  • Meet Pi: Rakuten Viber and Inflection deliver friendly personal AI services to Filipino chats

    Meet Pi: Rakuten Viber and Inflection deliver friendly personal AI services to Filipino chats

    In a collaboration that embraces the belief that “conversation is the new interface,” Rakuten Viber, the leading global platform for private and secure messaging and voice-based communication, has partnered with AI studio Inflection to bring Pi, its cutting-edge conversational AI expertise to Viber users in the Philippines. Filipino users will have direct access to Pi, enhancing their messaging experience through advanced conversational capabilities. 

    With a name that stands for personal intelligence, Pi brings an exceptionally empathetic and supportive personality to conversations with users. It is powered by Inflection’s in-house-built Inflection-2.5 large language model which is competitive with the world’s best foundation models on key industry benchmarks. 

    Pi combines world-beating EQ with smart IQ to help users with all their questions. Viber users can ask for advice, up-to-date information, or just chat. Pi will help them organize their thoughts, make clear plans, and act on them whether they’re changing jobs, trying to get healthier, learning a new skill, wanting to know the latest news, or just in the mood for a chat. Now, Pi is available to Viber users around the clock, so they always have a friend to turn to.

    Alongside their new personal AI, Pi-inspired stickers are available to all users on the platform for the next three months to use in both personal conversations with friends and chats with Pi. Users can bring positive messages to their chats with friends through the stickers, featuring expressive, supportive, and friendly lines, like “I can help”, “Let’s talk”, “Hi friend” and even “Love you.” 

    Rakuten Viber has joined the League of Super Apps, offering its Filipino users an array of versatile services and functions from essential calling and messaging features to entertaining channels like Backstage Pass to an endless collection of stickers, gifs, and chatbots enhancing users’ conversations and empowering business growth, especially for the micro, small, and medium enterprises or MSMEs. The expansion of the AI capabilities on the platform has been an essential component of Viber’s evolution and growth during the past few years, and this coincides with increasing interest in AI among Filipinos, with a LinkedIn survey finding about 70% are keen to learn about AI. 

    Now together with Inflection, backed by USD1.5 billion of investment from major investors including Microsoft, Nvidia, Bill Gates, and Eric Schmidt, the messaging app dares to envision a future where users can leverage the power of artificial intelligence seamlessly and effectively at their fingertips. 

    “Rakuten Viber has always been committed to democratizing access to powerful and, at the same time, easy-to-use communication capabilities for smartphone users around the world. By welcoming Pi on our platform, we are taking another important step in this journey – to introduce powerful and highly conversational AI assistants to millions of users for the first time in their lives,” comments Atanas Raykov, VP of Global Marketing & Growth at Rakuten Viber. 

    Gadgets Magazine 9

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  • Rakuten Viber launches customizable chat folders

    Rakuten Viber launches customizable chat folders

    Rakuten Viber, the global leader in private and secure messaging and voice-based communication, launched chat folders in the Philippines, enabling users in the country to quickly find specific conversations and enhance the way they manage their communications. Designed with user convenience in mind, chat folders streamline chat organization by allowing effortless categorization based on topics, groups, or individuals. 

    The new feature allows users to create up to five custom folders, in addition to an ‘All’ tab that automatically includes all other chats. For example, users can create a folder for work, friends, family, or favorites. Chats can even be assigned to multiple folders, and there is no limit to the number of chats that can be added. Users can also rename folders or mark all chats within folders as read, making it easier to categorize and streamline their communications. 

    According to a 2024 report by social and media intelligence firm Meltwater and socially-led creative agency We Are Social, the Philippines ranks fourth in the world in terms of using social media and chat apps daily, and the top reason why they do so is to keep in touch with friends and family. 

    Messaging apps have become a predominant medium for this and for all other communication across many different areas of every Filipino’s life. Folders can provide an efficient and user-friendly way to manage or search these conversations and customize the chatting experience. For example, by keeping all colleagues’ chats in a folder labeled ‘work,’ users can easily manage projects and tasks or coordinate a birthday gift for another colleague during the work week. As the weekend hits, folders labeled ‘friends’ or ‘family’ can be set as a priority, making it easier to set up dinner for Saturday night, or organize a parent’s birthday present in a sibling group chat. 

    The unread badge with a number on top of each folder indicates the number of unread chats within that folder. All one-on-one chats, group chats, channels, and communities can be added to these custom folders. Certain exclusions apply, as hidden chats, messages from businesses, and customer interactions cannot be included in these folders. 

    “In today’s fast-paced digital world where messaging apps play a paramount role in people’s everyday lives, Rakuten Viber steps in with Folders. Our latest feature is here to elevate conversations and preserve meaningful connections by unlocking time-saving potential and embracing the advantage of simplicity,” comments Ofir Eyal, Rakuten Viber’s ceo.

    Folders are gradually rolling out globally and will become available to all users with Rakuten Viber version 22.0 and above in the next couple of months. Users with more than 10 chats will be introduced to the feature once they open the app. Folders can also be activated by going to More on the main chat screen, then selecting Manage Folders and adding chats to them. 

    Gadgets Magazine 17

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