The Official Google Voice App Gets Its First Update
December 14, 2010
As noted on the Google Voice Blog, the official Google Voice app for iOS now supports the iPod touch and iPad.
Google Voice v1.1.0.636 appears to be primarily a maintenance and general improvement focused update.
• Support for iPod Touch
• iPod Touch and iPhone can now make calls using Click2Call
• Do Not Disturb setting
• Text forwarding is automatically disabled when registering for Push notifications
• Added Text forwarding setting to the app
• Easier to make calls from the phone Address Book
• Removed annoying OK dialog every time you send an SMS
• Fixed crashes caused by text messages that begin with a space character
• Fixed bug that caused the entire Inbox to load
• Fixed bug that caused Contact pictures to get mixed up
• Improved access to Contact groups
• Improved speed of Contact search
There were a few new features added for iDevice users: Do Not Disturb, Click2Call, and control over text forwarding.
What seems to be the most interesting addition is the inclusion of Google's Click2Call service. Click2Call is primarily used on Google Maps, Google Earth, and some web sites to make calling a phone number easier when not accessing search results, etc from a smartphone. It basically just connects the call with whatever number you designate without the need to dial it.
I don't want to say this feature isn't useful but it seems odd, to me anyway, that a person would use this feature through the Google Voice app. That must mean that I'm just not seeing that piece of the puzzle.
It seems Google would be better off adding streamlined and native support for placing and receiving calls using some of the third party VoIP apps and services. What are your thoughts? Do you think this is a solid first update?