Official Google Voice for iPhone hits iTunes App Store

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

Google's official Google Voice app for iPhone has just hit the iTunes App Store.

  • Access your Google Voice account right from your iPhone.
  • Receive push notifications for new text or voicemail messages.
  • Send free text messages to U.S. numbers and make international calls at cheap rates.
  • Listen to your voicemail, read transcripts and manage your Google Voice inbox.
  • Display your Google Voice number as caller ID when making calls.
  • Call contacts from your iPhone Address Book or enter new numbers on the dialpad.
  • A Google Voice account is required to use this app. To sign up go to www.google.com/voice.
  • Google Voice is only available in the United States.

Wow, who thought we'd ever get to type those words? While the last bullet point is a bit of a bummer, there's no denying this ends one of the darker chapters of iOS and App Store history -- which included an FCC investigation and revealed the first cracks in what had previously been an Apple/Google love-fest.

If you're trying it out let us know how you like it and how it compares to GV Mobile and other 3rd party offerings.

Now where's the official Gmail app?

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

65 Comments
  • Now that would have been a worthy announcement.
  • Curious :)
    does it still use your phone to call out then uses the number or is it pure VoIP so you can turn off cellular and just use WiFi?
  • Ohhh I love these push notifications for texts. Really considering dropping my texting plan now!!
  • The fact that this has push notifications out of the box will kill the other two competitors, until they update their apps.
  • It works pretty well.
    As long as people do not assume that GV makes calls over DATA, and realize its a replacement for Visual voice mail and offers unlimited sms (even for ipod touch).
  • also I am confused, hasnt this been on the App store for a while? i downloaded it almost a month ago.
  • @RJ:
    No. Calls still go over Cellular, using minutes. SMS goes over data. That is THIS WEEK. Google can flip a switch and become a data only service any time they want. They just don't want to piss off the carriers just yet.
  • Link? I searched and it's not there!
  • @RJ, no you didn't get this version in the app store. This is the official Google version. Not by some third party.
    It was just out today.
  • Not bad. Not bad at all. This would've been a much more worthy announcement!
  • For some reason, you need to search the App Store for "googlevoice," not "google voice." Weird
  • @icebike, they why did the app store ask for me to update my app? :)
  • there are two google voice apps on the app store, im confused now. there is one for 2.99 and one for free there is GV Connect which comes up as Google voice
  • iTunes must be having issues (I mean more than usual). I can't find it from my iPod.
  • @icebike, hope they flip that switch.
    cant download it on my ipad. I will sync with iTunes when I get home and try to move the app over to my ipad. would be cool for them to flip that switch :) then I can make call from my ipad over wifi. Why? because I can LOL :)
  • ITS NOT UNDER GOOGLE VOICE!!, its under googelvoice :)
  • OK this is getting weird... finally found it on iTunes (from PC)and downloaded it.
    I have now tried to install it (3 times!!) so far and each time iTunes says it is installing it, but when the Sync is over it is NOWHERE to be found on my iPod!!
  • Sorry, link wasn't showing up above. It's there now:
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id318698524
  • I'm glad we got this. Now I'm waiting for AT&T to get off their ass and allow FaceTime over 3G. I hope that T-Mobile commercial has some impact in decision making over there in AT&T/APPLE land.
  • I figured it out... App only runs on iPHONES, not ipod Touch or iPad. Oh weel, I'll stay with GV Mobile +
  • @Rick:
    Works on iPhones that have been re-purposed as an ipod touch, by removing the sim when you move to a newer iphone (or Android phone).
  • Woo! Got it.
    Searching for "googlevoice" and not "google voice" did the trick on my iphone. I'm so excited. lol
  • :(
    Too bad voice is only available on US :(
  • Does not work. Incoming texts to my GV on iPhone shows callers phone number and not callers name. Any suggestions????????
  • Does anyone else not see the TEXT button on the dialer? Mine is only showing the CALL option.
  • Searching for “googlevoice” and not “google voice” did the trick on my iphone. I’m so excited. lol
    Took me a while to figure this out, but when typing googlevoice into the search screen on my iPhone, it auto populated search results until there are none, but when I kept typing anyway, then hit the search button, it finally found it.
  • How about an official google talk app now?
  • I wish it had a VOIP option...
  • Searching "Google Voice" will find it, its just that it is buried about three pages deep.
    @Chip: Plus One for Google Talk. Its more or less replaced SMS for me, and its free world wide.
    @Gary: Name appears if the person is in your Google Contacts. If you aren't syncing your iPhone Contacts with your Google Contacts I don't think you get name.
  • I can not find a way to make google voice stop forwarding SMS to my phone. Since I have this app I don't need it to forward.
  • It's about time!! Boy Apple is so weird some(most) times!
  • @Vietalogy Sign into google voice on the web. Then go to settings in the right top corner. Go to Text settings and uncheck SMS forwarding.
  • It doesn't work for iPod touch?!!!! WOW, I am PISSED!
  • Voip is almost a must but alas; Google voice is a crap app that uses your data records your normal calls to data mine your conversations this is BS.
  • Yeah why can't I get this to work on my iPad? It'd be nice to get texts on that so I don't have to pick my phone up when I'm reading a book or something...
  • sweet! i already like it after installing it. i've been oh so loyal to gv mobile+ for the past year, but looks as if i can retire that app now. sorry sean! :/
  • Other than unlimited free texting (which isn't really that big a deal) this app isn't worth anything unless it works over data. When that day comes it will be interesting to see how many people say bye to their carriers - my guess - a lot :)
  • Does not work for us Canadians using the workaround. Whenever you try to dial out it says "unable to connect your call" GV mobile + callback method works though. Guess Google is tightening the clamps on people using the service outside the US.
  • @iPhone4idiots:
    Don't plan on saying goodbye to your carriers any time soon.
    You would still need them for the data pipe. (Er, ah, the Tube says Mr Stevens, RIP).
    Personally I think the sooner this happens the better, and with LTE we will come closer to the day when the Carriers realize there is more money in data than there is in Voice.
  • What's the work-around to dl this app to us Canadians? I already have a gv account which I use through the web but that one sucks because I have to use the old mobile version!
  • Create a US iTunes account for free via:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2534
  • hmmm, although I have the app, it attempts to dial to a US number when I try to make a call. Once it was in CA, then TX :S.
  • @jt, either get US iTunes account (Google it) or grab GV Mobile + which works better if you're going to make calls. As I stated earlier with the official GV App you can't dial out on your Canadian numbered iPhone.
  • But why is the gv app attempting to dial out in the first place? :S I thought gv's concept is to connect two parties by calling both of them? When I use the web based app, this is what happens.
  • Bye bye texting plan.
  • @jt, that's what GV Mobile+ does as well, for whatever reason when you attempt to dial a number with the official GV App it direct dials out to an American number and once connected says "unable to connect your call". GV Mobile+ uses the call you method, once answered dials your desired number.
  • Thanks Ron, I'll stick to the web app I guess.
  • Loading up a the Inbox for a text takes a really loooong time for me. Has anyone else noticed this?
  • I think having the text forwarded to my email and then replying from that email was/is faster than waiting for the text to load in this app. Hopefully it will be improved shortly.
  • Thanks Farbod21! That's the info I needed.
  • Apologies. Spoke to soon. I still have the same question as Vietalogy. Signed into Google Voice on the web, went to Settings, then Voicemail & Text. Nothing is checked for forwarding SMS, but my Google Voice texts are still being delivered to BOTH the Google Voice app and to the standard Messages app for iPhone. Did I miss something? How can I turn off text forwarding to the Messages app, and have them delivered only to the Google Voice app? Thanks!
  • It says it's not available for mobile devices when I try to sign up @www.google.com/voice
  • 3rd time's the charm. It's necessary to log into Google Voice online, go to Settings, then Phones (not Voicemail & Texts), choose your iPhone mobile number, click Edit, then uncheck the box for "Receive text messages on this phone". Problem solved. No more duplicate text message delivery to both Google Voice app and iPhone's Message app.
  • Way better than the other two Google Voice solutions in the app store. Way better, nice notifications.
  • Hmmmm.... Doesn't want to install on my iPad. Keep getting "Your request could not be completed"
  • Very disappointing. The interface is virtually unusable. No way to easily send texts. I'm glad it's free. I'm deleting this and going back to GV Mobile +
  • Looks like they've limited the app to the iPhone only. Wonder if this is pressure from Apple?
  • in app: account is not subscribed to Google voice
  • Is anyone else noticing it doesn't cache history items? This really is less usable than the other two apps. It kind of looks and behaves like they are using an embedded web browser to load the history data. This is a shame because the push notifications are sweet, but this almost feels more like a web app than a true cocoa based app.
  • This sucks. GV + doesn't have push notifications but the official app does. GV + allows you to use the call back method (getting around using your minutes using AT&T's A-List) but the official app doesn't. Looks like I'll be sticking with GV+
  • When will google get on the damn ball and realize THERE ARE MORE CUSTOMERS OUTSIDE THE US AND START CATERING TO THEM?
  • Wooow man .. thats cool... am so happy
    but y missing so many thing :(
  • I agree with Charlie. Not having history items cached is a real PAIN. The push notifications are nice but even on wifi, loading the history items is SLOOOOOOWWWWW!!! Google needs to fix this and maybe consider a more intuitive layout.
    Until these issues are addressed (mainly the non-caching of data) I'm going to stick with GV Connect (which hasn't failed me yet) and use Notifo for PUSH notifications.
  • Every time I see a good post I do a few things:1.Share it with my relevant contacts.2.Bookmark it in all my popular social bookmarking websites.3.Make sure to return to the same website where I came accross the article.After reading this article I'm really concidering going ahead and doing all 3...
  • Now he wanna be Meek Mills lol Bow Wow the People don't care for you because you have not been yourself since you left JD who is Boww Wowwww we don't know you!!