Category: Communication
Price: Free
TiP Rating: 5/5 stars
Release Date: 01/26/2010
Languages: English
Requirements: iPhone OS 3.0 or higher
Click to access link (within mobile Safari)

Official Description: …we are launching a new Google Voice mobile web app for iPhone OS 3.0 and higher and Palm Web OS devices, harnessing the power of HTML5, a new web technology that makes it possible to run faster, richer web-based applications right in the browser. To get started, visit m.google.com/voice in your mobile browser. For quick access, don’t forget to create a shortcut to this URL on your home screen or Palm Launcher. Just a reminder: you’ll need a Google Voice account and a voice plan on your cell phone to place calls using this web app. Don’t have a Google Voice account? Request an invite.

Summary: Google has finally launched its Google Voice web app. Since Apple pulled all GV-related programs from its App Store, the only way to have this service on the iPhone was to use jailbroken apps. Now with this, you can use your Google Voice number to make outgoing calls, and you get quick and easy access to texts, messages and voicemail transcriptions.

Review: Previously the only way Google Voice and iPhone users could use the two together was by jailbreaking their handsets and downloading the application GVdialer from the Cydia App Store. Well Google has completely eliminated the need for jailbreaking in that regard, thanks to its nifty web application designed for the iPhone (and WebOS devices).

Google Voice is a one-number-for-all service that offers call forwarding, free text messaging and voicemail transcription. Users get a dedicated Google Voice phone number, and the service sends calls made to that number to as many as five different phones, both landline and cellular. So you can set it to forward to all your phones, if you want to make sure that you can always be reached, or just certain phones scheduled at certain times of the day. There’s also free texting via GV, as well individualized outgoing recordings (so work contacts can get a different greeting than family members), threaded message views and voicemail transcription (which isn’t very accurate yet, but it does tend to get numbers and addresses right).

There used to be apps that integrated Google Voice management and calling on the iPhone, but Apple yanked them last year. But with this new web application, using GV on the iPhone has now become just as easy as calling via the phone’s native dialer. After navigating to GV online on the iPhone’s browser, visitors are asked to enter the emails and passwords that are connected to their GV accounts. Once signed in, the screen is filled with a dialpad, where users can type any number they wish to call or text.

Why would you use this instead of the iPhone dialer directly? Because if you have and use a Google Voice account, you may want that number to show up on people’s caller ID, to avoid confusion. Here’s how the web app works: When you dial a number using GV online, the service uses Google’s lines to direct the call to the intended recipient. When the friends receive your calls, it’s easy for them to save the number or call you right back.

Texting through the web app is very easy and nearly instinctive. Selecting the “notepad and pen” tab at the top navigates to the text feature. If you use Google Contacts, then finding the desired person is as easy as texting from your contacts on the iPhone. Without Google Contacts, you will need to know and manually dial the friend’s actual phone number. My contacts are already saved on Google’s end, which makes this extremely handy thing for me, since I hardly ever remember even my own home number without my phone.

Selecting the inbox tab subsequently takes you to all messages sent to and from your Google number. Responding to a message is just a tap away from the inbox: You just select an item to open a new page, which displays the full text and reply options (via SMS/text or phone call). Thanks to this texting feature, you can now forget about adding an unlimited texting plan from your carrier. Google directs all messages through your iPhone’s internet connection — be that Wi-Fi or cellular data — making that addictive texting habit of yours completely free. (But be warned: Phone calls still use calling minutes.)

Google has truly outdone themselves with this one. This web app does everything you would expect from a real, dedicated iPhone app. Using it has been seamless and I even replaced the dialer application with the GV icon in my phone’s launcher section. (I created a homescreen bookmark from the web browser, which has made it so much easier to access from the home screen.)

I am already such a big fan of this, that I’ll even say that I wish Google’s Android devices didn’t have its own native program for GV. (Going to the website on an Android phone prompts you to download the app.) So be happy, you Google fiends with an iPhone. Even though you may not have the real deal, by my standards you’ve got something far better.