MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected public health, it has also greatly impacted everyone’s mental wellbeing. Fears about a new disease and how it can affect you and your loved ones can be overwhelming, while months-long quarantine can make you feel lonely and increase your anxieties.
Taking care of your emotional and mental state should be a top priority, as this can affect how you perform daily and even how you make choices during an emergency. A few changes can lead to big differences, and since communication is key for important connections and information, why not start with your messaging app? Communications giant Rakuten Viber has a number of features and surprises that help keep the stress and the blues at bay.
Talking with family and friends prove to be an instant stress-reliever, but since you can’t meet in person, keeping in touch has become virtual through chat messages and video calls. To help you express yourself more accurately in your daily conversations, Viber is making some of its popular paid sticker packs free for download until Sept.10.
Say exactly what you want in your family group chat with The Family sticker pack. If you’re miles apart from your partner, make them feel your enduring love with Long Distance Love. Taking your relationship to another level? Make your wedding more memorable with Freddie & Eve Get Married stickers. Keep your friends closer and chat with your barkada with The Girls and The Guys. Or add some out-of-this-world fun to your messages with Gen Z-approved stickers Pizza Forever and Quirky Galaxy.
Revisiting an old flick or catching up with the latest blockbuster hits you missed? Complete the experience with Movie Moments. You can also lighten the mood of your work chats with Legcat Means Business, and for those who’d rather say nothing at all, just express yourself with Vibermoji and Lovely Faces.
Getting blow-by-blow updates on COVID-19 can get disheartening, so it’s perfectly okay to hit pause or even tune out. You can take control of the information you consume and choose when to read your news using Viber’s new Explore tab. This new feature includes information on COVID-19 — from the top stories from verified online news sites to a banner that redirects you to KIRA Kontra COVID bot by the Department of Health. You can also find links to lifestyle and entertainment bots, Communities, and websites through Viber’s Explore feature.
With everything that’s happening and with quarantine orders still in place, it’s easy to feel powerless even if you want to help others out. With a click of a button, Viber empowers you to be a bright spot to others, too. The messaging app has partnered with Help From Home, an information hub for those who want to donate to frontliners and families at risk. It connects people at home to institutions that are running fundraising drives for their beneficiaries. To donate through Viber, just start a chat with the ViberPH bot and tap the Donate button.
Viber is also making it possible for you to send your personal gratitude to the frontliners. You can show them your appreciation by sending a video message through the app’s Thank You Frontliners bot. It’s a small gesture that will go a long way in uplifting the spirits of today’s heroes.
Indeed, these are hard times, but this is also the very reason why it’s much more important to do what you can for the sake of your mental health and wellbeing. Those steps can include exchanging Viber stickers with loved ones, tuning out the noise, or if you can, passing on some good vibes to others. What matters most is you look after yourself, so you can better cope with the uncertainties and fulfill the roles you have to play despite the crisis.
