14 DAY TRIAL // Christian Brunschen, Software Engineer at Google, has announced the immediate availability of Google Voice for iPhone, the highly-anticipated native application for iOS customers allowing them to access all the major Google Voice features on their handsets.
On the official Google blog, Brunschen begins his announcement saying, “Earlier this year we launched a Google Voice HTML5 web app for iPhone users. Today we’re taking the Google Voice experience on the iPhone to a whole new level with the launch of the official Google Voice for iPhone app,” he reveals.
Google’s Software Engineer outlines that, “With this native app, you’ll continue to have access to all the major Google Voice features on your iPhone.”
Brunschen proceeds to include a list of key benefits like cheap rates for international calls, free text messaging to U.S. numbers, voicemail transcription, the app’s ability to display your Google Voice number as caller ID when making calls and more.
“In addition to these benefits, the app provides some features that make using Google Voice on your iPhone a much better experience,” Brunschen informs fans of the service.
For example, push notifications help the app alert you instantly when you receive a new voicemail or text message, Google’s guy explains.
Also, most of a user’s calls are placed via Direct Access Numbers. This makes them connect just as quickly as regular phone calls, claims Brunschen.
Although the iTunes App Store description of Google Voice for iPhone says customers are required to run iOS 3.0 as the minimum version of the operating system, Brunschen claims the app requires iOS 3.1.
The Google staffer concludes his post saying: “Google Voice for iPhone is available to download from the Apple App Store today. You’ll need an iPhone with iOS 3.1 or later and a valid Google Voice account to use the app. At this time, Google Voice is available in the U.S. only.”