Viber For Linux Desktop Looks Huge

Well, I installed Viber for the Linux desktop today. Yet again. I remember installing it not so long ago only to end up uninstalling it straight away because the application window looked disproportionately huge on my Ubuntu 16.04.

The issue is still present now. Describing it, below are a few of what I noticed when Viber was first launched after install.

  • The application window would not fit the screen resolution properly.
  • Parts of the window won’t show because it’s too big.
  • I could not resize the application.
  • Maximize doesn’t work too.
  • The fonts are very large.

Everything looked very odd. Not to mention butt ugly.

Didn’t bother to look for a solution before. But today I did. And it is quite an easy fix. All you need is a good old text editor and a few clicks on the file manager.

So according to Ask Ubuntu this is what you should do if you encounter this issue (Credit goes where credit is due).

This works for Viber >= 0.70 only. The solution linked above includes one for older versions.

Find the .desktop file for Viber. It should be in /usr/share/applications by default. Aptly named, viber.desktop (Yes, no surprise there!).

Then edit the Exec line to include an adjustment on how the app will be scaled when launched.

Note: You need to run your GUI text editor with gksudo or you will not be able to modify the file. An alternative is to copy this file to your user’s applications directory. It will be at ~/.local/share/applications , but this means modifications to said file will only work for that user.

The modified command looks like this:

Exec=env QT_SCALE_FACTOR=0.6 /opt/viber/Viber %u

Modify the line on the .desktop file to look exactly like the one above.

Note: Though I did say exactly, you can – of course – experiment with a number that best suits your desktop environment. Mine is currently set at 0.8.

Close your Viber before re-launching it with this fix or you won’t notice the change until the next app launch. And by this I mean, kill the running app instance by going to the app indicator and clicking on Exit. That should terminate the app which is just running in the background.

That should do it. Now on the next app launch, you should have the Viber application scaled properly on your desktop. The window is already resizable. Maximize works too. Fonts display accordingly. Lastly, it will now look pretty on your desktop instead of sticking out like a sore thumb.

Caveat:

This may mess up Viber app’s file chooser dialog box a bit. You know that little window that pops up when you click the + icon and lets you choose files to send to your chat buddies. Yes, that one. In my case, I’ve noticed that the dialog box opens always on my secondary/external monitor. I am using a laptop. That’s where it is not showing properly. Because of the modified scaling factor, I can’t choose something correctly because the mouse clicks somewhere else instead of where the pointer is at on the window. The lower part of the dialog is always missing too, even if I make it bigger. This goes back to a “normal” dialog box when I drag it back to the built-in monitor. So it’s not that bad. This is true at least in my experience. YMMV.

Anyway… Enjoy messaging your friends!

Official Viber downloads page: https://www.viber.com/en/download/
How To install Viber on Linux - Scroll down at the bottom half part of the page for links to packages for Ubuntu, Fedora and an AppImage is provided too.

There are unofficial Snap versions for the Viber app on SnapCraft.io: https://snapcraft.io/search?q=viber

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Notice: This article was published on October 29, 2019 and the content above may be out of date.
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