Google Voice app powerful control panel, not calling program

Google Voice's iPhone app has finally entered the building. Apple's long-delayed approval arrived Tuesday, and the free app could be downloaded at will.

The app provides full Google Voice functionality

The app provides full Google Voice functionality, but it's important to know a critical point: The app doesn't make Internet phone calls.

The Google Voice system, called Grand Central before Google's acquisition, is more like a telephony management program. Any phone lines you already have are turned into powerful extensions of the main telephone number you're assigned when you sign up.

Until recently, to use the service for anything except texting and receiving voice mail, you had to associate phone numbers with Google Voice. But in August, Google muddied the waters by adding voice calling as a feature within Gmail with a separately installed audio/video chat browser plug-in for Mac, Windows, and flavors of Linux.

Communications hub for mail

Gmail has already become a communications hub for mail and chat. That's also where you find Buzz, the horribly launched social-networking service that's still available in Gmail unless you disable it. (I have.)

The Google Voice iPhone app remains a control panel, not a calling program, in this first released version. But it's a powerful control panel if you're willing to tell your friends, associates, and relatives to call only your Google Voice number.

As a hub, Google Voice lets you connect all the phone numbers you may have — home, work, cell and even real phone numbers attached to Vonage and Skype. You can set up rules to handle incoming calls to the Google Voice number and how they're divvied out among lines.

Browser logged in to the Google Voice portal

From a browser logged in to the Google Voice portal, you can enter a phone number and choose which line you want the outgoing call routed to. Click Connect, and the line you choose rings first; pick up and then Google calls the other end and connects you to that party.

The iPhone app adds a third choice, previously available through a Web app customized for the iPhone. Dial from the new app, and the call is passed to your regular iPhone dialing system. But instead of dialing the number directly, your phone calls a special Google number that's synced with your call. That number then connects you to the destination number, whether in the United States or abroad.

Oddly, the iPhone app doesn't seem to have access to your Google Contacts, an oversight that may have to do with Apple making a 15-month-old app available; Google will now presumably update the program and improve it.

The Google Voice approach requires an all-in commitment for greatest utility, and the app makes it far easier to manage. If you're looking for straight VoIP support that doesn't tap voice minutes, two strong contenders keep improving: Skype and Line2.

Both Skype and Line2 have full iOS 4 background support, handle calls over 3G data and Wi-Fi connections, and work on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Skype has a worldwide system of hundreds of millions of users who can be called directly through the app, or you can place and receive calls from the public phone system, too, for modest additional fees ($3 per month for unlimited outgoing U.S. and Canadian calls, for instance).

Subscription model at $9

Line2 works on a subscription model at $9.95 per month (after a 30-day free trial) for unlimited incoming calls, voice mail, and U.S. texting, and unmetered outgoing calls to the U.S. or Canada. The program uses VoIP as available, but can also be set to perform the call-through trick over your voice line that Google Voice uses.

The best thing about Google Voice appearing in app form is that we no longer need to settle for a second-best Web app if Google's alternative is what we need. Between Google Voice, Skype and Line2, anyone seeking a robust alternative to straight AT&T calling now has options to consider.