Now that Apple has published their guidelines for App submissions and relaxed the guidelines that allow 3rd party compilers (such as Flash Professional CS5) to create iOS Apps, it seems that they are also OK with Google Voice Apps that had been previously banned from the App Store. The first two native Google Voice apps have been released back (GV Connect and GV Mobile +) onto the App Store and made their way to the public this past weekend. I'm very happy to see these Apps get approved. Although both Apps are very similar in functionality and having played with both over the weekend I prefer GV Mobile + and that's the App I'm going to focus on here. I started using Google Voice earlier this year, but it was a little disappointing to have to rely on the Web App on the iPhone. First off Google Voice is a FREE service offered by Google that allows you to have one phone number that you can configure to ring to any or all of your phones. You can do SMS texting, voicemail as well as make cheaper international calls.
 

GV Mobile + Makes Google Voice a First Class Citizen on the iPhone

When I give out my number now I like to give out just one number, my Google Voice number. This way I can control which phone the calls will ring through on and I can even set up different voicemail greetings for different groups of people or individual. When I'm in my home office I can set it to ring on my office phone. When I'm out and traveling I can have the calls ring through to my iPhone. Also I can set it to "do not disturb" when I'm sleeping in a different timezone and don't want the phone to wake me. GV Mobile + gives me native access to all of the Google Voice features. I can see transcriptions of the voicemail messages as well as play them back via audio. I can send and receive SMS messages (although I prefer doing it via the TextNow App). Most importantly I can make calls and even access my iPhone Contacts more easily that appear on the other end via callerID as coming from my Google Voice number.  Although Google Voice is FREE, making and receiving calls actually does use cellular minutes. However, for international calls you can probably save money using Google Voice instead of roaming.

I'm happy to see this App! Like I said I did check out the other App that came out right before it (GV Connect), but I found it to be less stable and the interface is not quite as good. Since this is "Best App Site" I'm going to have to recommend GV Mobile + as the better one at this point.

You can get GV Mobile +  here on the GV