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When Apple relaxed its iOS developer terms earlier this month, it opened the floodgates for some applications that were previously banned.
Developers of the GV Mobile and GV Connect Google Voice applications for the iPhone rushed to take advantage of Apple’s loosening of the reins.
GV Mobile and GV Connect, which people use to route calls to their phones using a special phone number, are available for $2.99 in Apple’s App Store.
Google is reportedly just weeks away from launching its own official Google Voice app for the iPhone, according to TechCrunch.
The tech blog said the app has been approved, but Google is upgrading it to work with the iPhone 4 and iOS’s multitasking capabilities.
The app should include features GV Mobile and GV Connect don’t, such as push notifications for inbound SMS and voicemail messages.
Google declined to comment, but there’s no doubt it views Google Voice, with all of its phone management functionality, as a key part of its Web communications strategy.
The company in August integrated Google Voice with Gmail to enable users to call landlines and mobile phones from their computers using their Google Voice number.
Within a week, people had logged over 10 million calls, demonstrating just how popular the app is, particularly on such a broad platform as Gmail.
Google Voice on the iPhone has come a long way since Google submitted a version of its app for the iPhone to Apple’s App Store for approval in June 2009.
Google’s app was never approved because it competed with the iPhone’s dialer and other capabilities, though Apple said it never actually rejected the app.
The “he said, she said” ignited such scrutiny among the media that the Federal Communications Commission formally questioned Google, Apple and AT&T.
Soon, the official Google Voice-Apple App Store debacle is about to come full circle.