Google Voice, the centralized voicemail and Internet calling service Google announced in March, is now available via mobile applications for BlackBerry and Android phones. While users could
access the service on mobile phones before, the new apps make it easier by allowing people to place calls directly rather than having to type in phone numbers.
So now users can retrieve and
playback voice mails, send and receives SMS messages and read message transcripts as well as make local and long distance calls from mobile phones. Call recipients will see the user's universal Google
Voice number, rather than their cell phone number.
The Times Bits blog suggests the new
features will potentially make Google Voice's Internet calling service much more useful and a bigger potential threat to Skype.
Giga Om seemed to agree the new Google Voice apps could give the search giant a much more powerful position in mobile. "If Google
bundles the Google Voice app with Android and sells it to makers of cheaper feature phones, it can start to insert itself between the consumers and wireless companies," wrote Om Malik.
While
he noted that other companies such as Truphone have developed services that let people pay for cell phone service by listening to ads, "Google's sheer size is what makes this a pretty
interesting move." Besides Skype, what about the potential threat to wireless carriers themselves?
AT&T came under fire from consumer advocates earlier this year for restricting Skype's free app for the iPhone to
WiFi and blocking it from its 3G network. Though technically, Apple imposed the limitation on Skype, AT&T said it had "every right" not to promote the services of a wireless rival. With a Google Voice
app also in the works for the iPhone, will AT&T take the same course?
Asked on his blog about why wireless operators shouldn't cripple Google Voice, Malik responded that "the argument for
cell phone companies is that this is going to drive up usage of their voice networks. Perhaps force people to upgrade to higher unlimited voice plans." It doesn't seem that AT&T, at least, is buying
that argument.
And the fact that a Google Voice app for the iPhone wasn't released at the same time as the Android and BlackBerry ones could be a telling sign. The App Store is usually where
developers want to get new apps in as fast as possible.
Correction: Wednesday's Mobile Intelligencer incorrectly described the business of Truphone. The company offers various
free and low-cost calling and communication services but does not subsidize calls by requiring customers to listen to ads.