Google Voice comes to iPhone

Seth Weintraub
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April 06, 2009
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Wow...Skype was just the begining, more big telephony apps are making their way to the iPhone platform.  Google Voice is the reincarnation of Grand Central, which acts as a switch for your phones allows free US SMS, voicemail transcription and many other features.  Theoretically you could use even Google Voice and Skype together on an iPod touch.    We'll be the first to let you know when it hits the app store.

Update: Just FYI, this app isn't made by Google but uses just uses the Google Voice service.

Comments (11)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | April 06, 2009 - 8:08pm

What's the difference between Skype and GV mobile?

kewlfocus (not verified) | April 06, 2009 - 8:14pm

Skype using a Data connection to connect you to the Voice Over IP service, and GV is basically a really complex switch, that uses the Telco. It is awesome, btw.

AbSoluTc (not verified) | April 06, 2009 - 9:33pm

From experience, Grand Central/Google Voice is a middle man. It acts as a "cloak" so people don't know your REAL phone number. That's what it was for in the beginning. Now they have added more features. Other than that, I don't see what would be so great about this app.

Skype is different. If you have a wifi connection, you can call any phone number or skype user (of course you pay for land line calls). It's not a middleman that just connects a phone to a phone like Google Voice is.

As far as I know, Google Voice does not do Wifi/3G calling. Please correct me if I am wrong. I may be seriously mistaken.

AbSoluTc (not verified) | April 06, 2009 - 9:31pm

From experience, Grand Central/Google Voice is a middle man. It acts as a "cloak" so people don't know your REAL phone number. That's what it was for in the beginning. Now they have added more features. Other than that, I don't see what would be so great about this app.

Skype is different. If you have a wifi connection, you can call any phone number or skype user (of course you pay for land line calls). It's not a middleman that just connects a phone to a phone like Google Voice is.

As far as I know, Google Voice does not do Wifi/3G calling. Please correct me if I am wrong. I may be seriously mistaken.

kewlfocus (not verified) | April 06, 2009 - 8:13pm

Yes it will work on 3G, it's not a Data application. So it will work on any of the iPhones, no matter what version. This looks an awful lot like GrandDialer (sans the txting, cause GC didn't let you do that) on the iPhone, that I've been using for GrandCentral before I converted my account to GV.

kewlfocus (not verified) | April 06, 2009 - 8:39pm

OH! Also, this will not work with the iPod touch as it is not a phone, GV is not a VOIP service. You may want to correct your entry.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | April 06, 2009 - 9:09pm

This will work on the ipod touch. You will just have to pick a land or cell phone for your outgoing GV mobile call to ring to. This program is just a switch. The iphone and ipod touch apps are just the substitute for the need for a computer to place google voice calls.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | April 06, 2009 - 9:47pm

Great. A giant pass thru for google to be able to own your conversations and text messages for them to search thru, just like they want to do with twitter messages. Not interested.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | April 07, 2009 - 7:28am

Just so everyone knows, there is a similar iPhone app in the review process that supports Google Voice AND GrandCentral accounts. For more information, check out http://www.riverturn.com/iphone/VoiceCentral.php.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | April 07, 2009 - 8:52am

Kevin,
Please get your own spotlight to shine in. Just so everyone knows, VoiceCentral costs the same as my app with less features.

Thanks,
Sean Kovacs
www.seankovacs.com

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | April 07, 2009 - 8:26am

"Google Voice comes to iPhone"

This app is NOT even available yet!