At some point this morning Google slipped out the Google Voice web app they said they would do for the iPhone. In case you didn’t know awhile ago Google made a Google Voice app for the iPhone and it was rejected. They went back and forth with Apple about why it was rejected Apple blamed AT&T , AT&T blamed Apple it was a hole mess. In that mess Google said that they would return and have a Google Voice app on the iPhone, but as a HTML 5 web app.
Today is that day, Google Voice for the iPhone is here and really it not just for the iPhone I'm sure works with any mobile browser that supports HTML 5. There are two things I find funny about all this. One I went to m.google.com/voice to see if they had done it yet and there was a version of it there it just was really ugly and unusable. Two I think it is really funny that they lunched it the eve of Apple’s big announcement.
Lets talk about the app a little bit. It is a vary simple look to it when you go there you see a key paid and two buttons that say call or text.
You can send and receive text messages just like on the web site your inbox, SMS, missed calls, Received calls, voice mail, and everything is there and can be used. For me this really makes Google Voice a lot more usable for me. I don’t have a iPhone I have a dumb phone or whatever you want to call normal phones. On a normal bases I'm in range of WIFI so this just makes it better now for me to switch over to using Google Voice as my phone number now. Here are some other screen shots I took with my iPod Touch of Google Voice.
As you can see as you can put it on your home screen and it looks just like any other iPhone app it blends in just so well. I think this is Google's way of saying up yours to Apple and its app store. So enjoy this day other Google Voice users for today Google has one… but just not for long, with the tablet or whatever comes out tomorrow will end the talk of Google voice no one will be talking about this app sadly tomorrow.
*UPDATE: I just tried making a call form the iPod Touch and it wont work I don’t see why that is. It should not be using the device to make the call I want it send the call from my phone. Just thought you all should know.
**UPDATE: I contacted Google PR about the Issue I reported earlier and this was the response I got.
“You can access the web app on an iPod Touch by going to m.google.com/voice, however, you won't be able to place calls from your iPod Touch through the web app because Google Voice still uses your underlying phone service to complete calls.
Google Voice does not replace your existing phone service, but rather is designed to work with your phones to give you more control and tools to manage your voice communications.”
Form what they are saying to me it sounds like its some how using the device to call you, but if I use it on the desktop website its not using my computer to call me when I make a call. If you have an answer please leave a comment.