Viber is latest messaging app to expand into games

Newsbrief: Viber, one of the leading voice, video and messaging apps, has expanded out into games with Viber Games. The company has teamed up with Storm8 and Playtika to develop their first titles.

The first slew of releases includes Viber Candy Mania and Viber Pop, from Storm8, and Wild Luck Casino from Playtika. All three are using "Viber Connect", a private API that functions in a similar way to Steam, showing people what their friends are playing, invite them to games, as well as list in-game achievements.

This isn't the first time a messaging platform has branched out into games in a committed way. In the past year LINE, WeChat and Kakao Talk have all moved into games, using their messaging platforms as essentially an exclusive platform on which to play these games.