Google goes mobile with style, putting forth a new app for Android and BlackBerry devices that lets you do things carriers hate: Transcribe voicemail in a karaoke style, make cheap international calls, and send and receive free SMS messages - all without even using your cellphone number. Is Google beating carriers at their own game?
Google’s young service dubbed Google Voice could significantly alter the mobile landscape down the road. Basically a clever telephony service that routes your calls while providing the universal voice mailbox, Google Voice gives you one phone number to rule them all, linking all your cellphones and fixed lines together. This way, your contacts call only your Google number while you decide where incoming calls route on a per contact basis or using a broader criteria based on a region, phone numbers, groups of people, and other custom rules set in the web interface.
The service links all your cellphones and landlines to one Google number.
Advanced features allow you to record calls, make free conference calls, and switch phones during a call. The universal voicemail mailbox feature turns each audio message into a piece of text. The service came to light in June as an invite-only limited beta, adding new features like the ability to change your Google Voice number. It’s still in beta (request an invite) and available only in the US, but Google promised to eventually roll it out internationally.
With a native mobile client for Android and BlackBerry devices unveiled Wednesday, Google Voice went mobile, and in a big way too. The app puts the service right where you need it - on your cellphone - allowing you to use your Google Voice number to place outgoing calls and text people. The app is intuitively integrated with a default address book and dialer programs built-in to your phone.
SMS messages sent and received through your Google Voice number are totally free and international calls are way cheaper than your carrier’s minutes. The app transcribes your voicemail in a “karaoke style,” highlighting the words being read. Here’s how Vincent Paquet and Marcus Foster of Google Voice and Mobile teams, respectively, described the app in a blog post:
Previously, to place a call using Google Voice, you had to dial your own Google Voice number from your cell phone or use the Quick Call button online. With this new mobile app, you can make calls and send SMS messages with your Google Voice number directly from your mobile phone. The app is fully integrated with each phone’s contacts, so you can call via Google Voice straight from your address book.
Google Voice on Android: Automatically transcribed voicemail messages.
You can also access a combined call history and read SMS messages sent to your Google Voice number, even if your phone doesn’t receive SMS messages. The app integrates with Android’s native dialer, unlike the BlackBerry version that comes with a separate dialer app.
Best of all, outgoing calls and SMS messages display your Google Voice number, rather than your underlying cellphone number. Previously, people retrieving your return calls would have seen your cell, home, or office number, depending on where you received incoming calls.
Google told the NYTimes that it’s “working with Apple” on an iPhone version. Wired noted that the iPhone maker and AT&T could seriously cripple the app so it doesn’t lure users away from the carrier’s pricey minutes and text messages (AT&T’s unlimited texting option costs $20 a month).
Apple’s App Store agreement with the AT&T already prohibits VoIP and video calls, giving the carrier the power to prevent apps like Skype and Slingbox from placing VoIP calls or transferring video over its cellular network, although AT&T does allow limited video streaming in some apps.
Until Google Voice app for the iPhone becomes a reality, iPhone users can either play with GV Mobile, an unofficial Google Voice app, or access the web-based Google Voice interface using the Safari browser. Android users can download the app by searching for “Google Voice” in the Android Market. BlackBerry owners are advised to visit m.google.com/voice. People who don’t own an Android or a BlackBerry device can still operate Google Voice from the mobile Google Voice site at http://www.google.com/voice.
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