Submitted more than a year ago, Google’s Voice-specific iPhone app has finally gained approval from Apple and made its debut in the iTunes App Store. The bad news is that the app is incredibly buggy and because the Google Voice app does not offer VoIP, the app’s release has angered multitudes of iPod Touch users who feel left out. The good news is that the app’s presence in the iTunes App Store gives iPod Touch users hope that Google will release a major update for the Voice app shortly.
Google Voice has lots of potential. The price (free) is right and the fact that it’s a Google creation means that Google will likely offer good support down the line. Synching your account with the app is easy, but I didn’t see much in the way of options for managing things such as privacy, call screening or toggling on the “do not disturb” sign. If you have your iPod playing while you launch Google Voice for the first time, the app will stop your music. This didn’t happen to me when I switched to the app running in the background, but it’s still a very strange feature.
You can access your iPhone contacts through the app, but adding contacts through the dialer keypad takes some effort. You must first enter the phone number and then tap the “Plus-Contact” button, but should you start this process in error, hitting “Cancel” leaves you with an incomplete and unusable keypad. This glitch forces you to hit another tab and then re-enter the dialer to be able to make any calls. When you do make a phone call, Google Voice launches the normal iPhone-calling interface. The “Quick Dial” feature could come in handy for commonly used contacts, but right now, there’s a bug with user images—they all take on the same photo. I do like that I can view my voicemail transcripts, and the inbox offered basic features, such as starring and archiving, that will make is easy to manage your messages.
Voice offers push notifications for texting and while these are supposed to be free, I received double notifications—push for the app and a normal SMS to my text inbox. I think there is a way to turn this repetition off, but you’ll have to go through the normal website — not the app — to do so. After a text has been sent, you’ll be required to tap the big “OK” button to indicate that yes, you understood the text sent. There’s absolutely no purpose for this confirmation. Google Voice also doesn’t offer landscape support for texts.
Until there’s an update, Google Voice users will be better off sticking with the Google Voice Web app, or a competitor’s version.
