Google Voice iPhone apps: They're baaaack!

For those of us with iPhones, the challenge with Google Voice isn't getting calls at a number you can forward from phone to phone. It has been with making calls from that virtual number. That's where apps enter -- and then they disappeared.

You may recall that last summer Apple rejected Google's iPhone app for its Google Voice service and pulled three $3 Google Voice-enabled apps that allowed you to use Google Voice from your iPhone because of what developers were told was iPhone feature duplication (dialer, SMS, voice mail, etc.) An inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission ensued.

This app, like its competitor below, allows you to hear the voicemail either over the phone's speaker or by putting your ear to the phone. There's also a character count in the text message tab. 

Among the things we like about this app is the favorites tab -- Apple doesn't provide access to your phone's favorites list. When you flip to contacts from the keypad, you have access to the full list of contacts as well as the tab of favorites. 

Some of the other notable user-friendly features are landscape support throughout, the ability to set a default area code and startup tab, being able to set the frequency of data sync and phone number recognition (or displaying the name of a contact when you type in a number that's in your contacts).

We weren't thrilled by having to tap on a button labeled "trans." at the bottom of the screen to see the transcription. It would have been more intuitive to have that launch by tapping the arrow on the right of the message. Instead, by tapping the arrow, you trigger a menu allowing you to call the number back, send a text or add the information to your iPhone contacts. 

The price of free

For those of us who prefer the price of "free," you can always launch the Google Voice webpage from your home screen. Many of us without jailbroken phones have had to use that for the past year, and it still works just fine.

Photo: Jason Toff, marketing manager for Google Voice, demonstrates how to make a call from a red phone booth at the Google office in San Francisco in August. Google plans to promote the Google Voice service by setting up red phone booths at universities and airports scattered across the United States. Credit: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press