
Google Voice for iPhone Released - johns
http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/google-voice-for-iphone.html
======
irons
I'm struck that it appears to do very little local caching. In that sense it
feels like a highly polished web app, always at the mercy of an available
network.

Also, it's iPhone-only. Following the direct download link from an iPod or
iPad yields an error. Guess I'm sticking with Boxcar for iPad push
notifications.

~~~
samps
The "no caching" effect is much less pronounced with fast app switching. Are
you on iOS 3.x?

Also, in my experience, there are often weird consistency errors in the App
Store when something new is rolling out. (I could only see it on my Mac for a
while before it appeared on my phone.) Try again in an hour.

~~~
irons
I'm on 4.1. I noticed the caching behavior after seeing that the text and
voicemail views start with no data loaded, even after viewing the inbox.
Forcing the app to exit zeroed out all three views.

Loading data is pretty fast on wifi, and the app is certainly nice to look at,
but not taking any advantage of local persistence seems to push the web-
centric worldview a step too far.

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nikster
Google Voice is kind of the wrong product for the wrong time. It improves
voice telephone calls exactly at a time when that's no longer very
interesting.

The only semi-interesting thing would be cheap international calls - but I
have Skype for this already.

Voice mail, I don't use. If it was improved like with GV - I'd still not use
it. SMS, I have plenty of free texts, never exceed my limit - though I wonder
how they get away with making them free, given that carriers make lots of
money with that.

One number to rule them all - that would be cool - except if it's controlled
by one company which will eventually seek to monetize. Those chefs and massage
services cost money... I don't, by the way, see how being available on the
phone to anyone at any time, no matter what number they call and no matter
where I am - as a feature. More like a bug. I am already easily reachable on
my phone, via SMS, via emails. I don't need to be any _more_ available.

Anything that I'm missing? Why would I want GV?

~~~
khafra
For me, Google Voice's features allow me more granular control over my
availability, and reduce the total time my telephone takes by letting me skim
textual versions of voicemails, direct calls hither and thither, etc.

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dotpavan
If searching in the appstore, "google voice" didnt bring up anything but
"googlevoice" worked

~~~
johns
It was on the second page of results for me.

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waxman
This long-awaited arrival throws quite the wrench into the Android v. iOS
platform wars.

Google was obviously already on the iPhone (with search, its popular native
app, gmail, etc.), but Google Voice is clearly different in that in competes
with the core functions of the phone.

What do you guys think the impact of this will be? Could Google use this as a
Trojan horse to hook people on GV then try to upsell them to an Android device
with better GV integration? Or will it not matter?

~~~
irons
For an upsell to work, you'd first have to believe that people buy iPhones
primarily to make phone calls. Then you'd have to believe that these phone-
centric individuals are tolerant of the voice latency in GV calls. I don't see
it.

~~~
secret
There is no voice lag in GV that I've noticed, I think it works more like
call-forwarding than voip.

~~~
irons
I'd love to find some rigorous way to measure it, but (as of six months or so
ago) when I sat with two phones, held down a button, and waited for a tone to
come out the other end, the delay was observably longer with a GV-to-GV call
than with a GV-to-cell call, which took longer than cell-to-cell.

I find myself saying "no, go ahead" or talking over the other person far more
often with GV than not. It's certainly usable, but I avoid GV if the call
quality really matters.

~~~
secret
It definitely takes longer for calls to connect and I think it may drop calls
more frequently when using it on a cell (although it has improved greatly in
that regard from about a year ago). I recently started using it through gmail
and have been told the calls sound much better. Not sure what it all means.

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ja27
Doesn't seem to be available for iPod Touch even though many of the features
would work fine on it.

~~~
motvbi
It appears number portability and iPod Touch support is not on their priority
list. I have no clue why. With those two features, personally, I would be free
from cell phone carriers.

~~~
loire280
It does essentially give you number portability.

1\. Set up Google Voice to forward your GV # to your cell phone.

2\. Install the Google Voice app to get push notifications for SMS messages
sent to your GV #.

3\. Give out your GV # instead of your cell phone number.

4\. Change the forwarding rules at will -- you can even use the same number
for multiple phones.

~~~
irons
Number portability in this context means the ability to use an existing number
with new service, not the ability to use a new number which points back at
your existing number.

Google's been on the record for several years as hoping to support this in the
future.

[http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&...](http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=115102)

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davemabe
This is great - but you still have to be in the app to make a phone call
(doesn't integrate with the native iPhone phone app well). Does anyone know if
the Android version has tighter integration?

I'd like to not have to remember to launch the app to return a call and use
the native SMS app to send from my GV number. Is this possible with the
Android version?

~~~
tdfx
The Android version of Google Voice integrates with the native dialer and SMS
apps.

~~~
davemabe
Tks - that might be enough reason to switch to Android actually.

~~~
lftl
Note that this doesn't mean GV on Android is using VOIP or anything along
those lines. It simply dials one of the GV numbers for you and then connects
you.

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igravious
Europe is such a tiny market, why would they even consider trying something
like this out here :)

 _sniff_ _sniff_

Do I have to make a sacrifice to some modern deity or something to see this on
our side of the pond? Oh pretty please Goog? :)

~~~
mambodog
I have to wonder if this will ever make it to Australia before we stop using
the POTS.

------
tdfx
Overall the polish of the app seems a little lacking but the fact that push
notifications are finally available makes it the service itself actually
usable on an iPhone. I'm not amazed but certainly a happier person than I was
yesterday.

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keltex
It's ironic that Apple might have changed their app store rules to allow a
Google product (GV) into the app store in order to counter another Google
product (Android)

~~~
sgk284
My understanding is that this change in policy was directly in response to
pressure from the EU and FTC probes.

~~~
trotsky
It's interesting the extent to which apple is pre-emptively trying to avoid
anti-trust actions by allowing apps like opera and gv and backpedaling on ad
network competition. I assume that's because they see it as a real possibility
that an EU remedy could be something like forcing them to natively support
competing app stores. That would be a huge blow to apple revenue.

~~~
roc
are you suggesting they make a notable amount of direct money off the app
store?

Or are you suggesting the more indirect: more app stores->less confidence,
more confusion, less sales->less device sales->less revenue

~~~
trotsky
Thanks for correcting me in a polite way - I see that analysts place app store
profits at only about 1% of apple's gross profits since the store opened. Huge
was obviously a poor choice of words, but still the numbers are compelling -
$189M in gross profit on ~$1.3B gross revenue (assuming the $1B paid out *
1.3) - 14.5% margins even while including operating costs associated with free
apps. One can also assume that the 1% contribution to profit is a growing
figure since it includes the entire time the app store has been open but sales
have been increasing steadily. While apple calls it "a bit over break-even",
that has always been the line with itunes as well yet there are various pieces
of evidence that suggest that is somewhat of a fib.

I think you make an even better point than I was thinking of though. Apple
clearly values the tight control they have over applications highly. Whatever
their motivations there - ux, security, platform lock in, vertical
integration, control over competitors - they surely believe that ceding that
control would have a negative effect on their bottom line.

------
BlazingFrog
Finally... Sweet GV push notifications... :D

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j_b_f
There are some rough edges (like the SMS sending screen, yuck) but what I'm
impressed by is how performant the app is on my old-ass 3G. It seems to open
faster than the SMS or Dialer apps do. Probably 'cause it was developed back
when the 3G was cutting-edge!

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AndrewWarner
GV Mobile+ still has a lot of features that this official google app doesn't
match, like the ability to paste phone numbers into the dial pad and ability
to rout numbers via Skype.

~~~
billboebel
Now that they have an official app, maybe they'll iterate fast to catch up to
GV Mobile's features.

~~~
travisp
On the other hand, if Apple really didn't want to allow the app, and only did
so to satisfy regulators, they can do their best to slow and stall on every
change that Google submits.

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p0ppe
According to John Gruber it still uses your AT&T minutes for domestic calls.
That should be a turnoff for most.
<http://twitter.com/#!/gruber/status/4619690240376832>

~~~
kylec
Google Voice isn't, and has never been, a VoIP service. Phone calls made
through the iPhone app or Android app have always used the phone's minutes.

~~~
johns
It wasn't until they added the ability to make calls from the browser in Gmail
using your Google Voice number. So they're not a full-blown VoIP service, but
they have some VoIP features now.

~~~
kylec
I think that's technically considered part of GMail/Google Talk. Google Voice
just provides a facility to route the call to GMail/Google Talk.

------
rbxbx
<http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-voice/id318698524> <\-- Direct link,
gogogo, before it's gone ;)

~~~
stevenp
I don't think it's available in a limited quantity. :)

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gustaf
Is this all native? Parts of it feels like javascript.

~~~
csomar
How do you feel JavaScript???!

~~~
Xuzz
Easily: poor scrolling, slow, shadows at the end of the web views (that the
iPhone SDK forces in there (!)), etc. It's fairly easy to tell on an iPhone if
something is JavaScript or not, it's one of the reasons I don't use anything
that's been near PhoneGap or whatever.

