No app’s banning from the App Store has caused more gnashing of teeth and anger than the loss of Google Voice (no, not even the removal of the weak girly picture apps). While it’s understandable why AT&T would want to keep free phone calling and SMS off of their network, it’s still infuriating. As a GrandCentral user from way back in the day (before Google bought it), it annoys me that I can’t have a native interface to my account.
That said, suppliers of Voice are fighting back. Google has made a very nice web app available through Safari, and now Riverturn, makers of the popular VoiceCentral app for iPhone before its removal, has written a web app nearly as good as the native version. Called “Black Swan,” the web app won’t work at all in Safari. Instead, you save a bookmark that populates itself with your Google Voice data and then configures itself perfectly. It’s available in an ad-supported free version or for $6 to get a premium version including photo importing, better customer service and a Do Not Disturb feature.
I’ve been using it all day, and it’s pretty slick. The one flaw I see so far is that it won’t sync my contacts from my phone for regular use, which limits its usefulness as my primary dialer. Still, it’s by far the best way to access Google Voice without jailbreaking. Check it out!
