Apple accepted third-party Google Voice applications GV Mobile and GV Connect into its iPhone App Store. Google's own Google Voice app should be coming soon to the store.
More than 14 months after shutting the door on the official and third-party
applications for Google Voice, Apple has relented, approving GV Mobile for the
iPhone.
Google Voice is a phone management application more than 1.4 million people
use to route calls to their phones using a special phone number.
The app, which enables free calls in the United
States and cheap international calls, lets
users enjoy automatic voice mail transcription, the ability to listen to live
messages as they come in to voice mail and several other tools to make call
management easier.
Google submitted a version of its app for the iPhone to Apple's App Store
for approval in June 2009. Some enterprising developers, such as Sean Kovacs,
built apps such as GV Mobile that take the dialing and other capabilities from
Google Voice and make them work on Apple's iPhone.
Google's app was never
approved, though Apple said it never actually rejected the
app.
The "he said, she said"
touched off such scrutiny among the media that the Federal
Communications Commission formally
questioned Google, Apple and AT&T. Apple, it turned
out, was indeed behind the rejection.
Third-party apps such as VoiceCentral and GV Mobile were originally approved
but then
removed for competing too closely with features on the
iPhone.
Now, Apple has done an about-face, accepting GV Mobile, Kovacs
said on his blog Sept. 18.
The app is available for download from the iTunes Webstore
here
for $2.99. "After a long year and a half of being home sick, GV Mobile
makes an epic return to the App Store," Kovacs wrote.
Like Google's version of the app, GV Mobile supports automatic transcription
and voice mail playback and most other features. Apple also accepted GV Mobile
rival GV Connect, which does what GV Mobile does and also costs $2.99 for
purchase
here.
The move comes weeks after Apple
loosened the reins on its App Store development rules and
procedures after enough developers complained about the gauntlet they had to
run.
It's a safe bet that Google's own Voice app will be approved by Apple, if
not this year, then early 2011.
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