iTunes App Store Welcomes Back Google Voice App
The official Google Voice app has just made it back to the iTunes App Store after several attempts including HTML5 Web-based and third party app.
Google Voice is a call forwarding service that provides to user a regular permanent local phone number – dialing to this number will ring to physical phones (work, home, cell,..) depending on the personal settings. Voicemails are transcribed to text and sent via email. This Google Voice phone number would mask your physical phone numbers and makes them somewhat irrelevant. (No worry about getting a new phone contract with new phone number)
While receiving calls from Google Voice number is not an issue, outgoing call from a normal phone will show up on the recipient side with the caller-Id of the phone not with Google Voice number. This would be a confusion to your friends. Therefore, an Google app is required to trick the caller-id with your Google Voice number.
The free Google Voice app can substitute third party paid app like GV+, however a feature that GV+ offers that the official Google Voice app is lacking is the ability to be a middleman. At home, where AT&T cell signal is very weak, I can use GV+ on my iPhone to connect both my land line home phone and the person on other side.
From Google blog:
With this native app, you’ll continue to have access to all the major Google Voice features on your iPhone, like:
- Cheap rates for international calls
- Free text messaging to U.S. numbers
- Voicemail transcription
- Display your Google Voice number as caller ID when making calls
In addition to these benefits, the app provides some features that make using Google Voice on your iPhone a much better experience:
- With push notifications, the app will alert you instantly when you receive a new voicemail or text message
- Most of your calls will be placed via Direct Access Numbers, making them connect just as quickly as regular phone calls
Google Voice for iPhone is available to download from the Apple App Store today. You’ll need an iPhone with iOS 3.1 or later and a valid Google Voice account to use the app. At this time, Google Voice is available in the U.S. only.
[Source Google]
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