Google Voice (GV Mobile) app submitted to App Store [Updated: New info]
We reported that Sean Kovacs, the developer of GV Mobile, may have gotten the heads up that his app would be re-approved to the App Store. Well today, it looks like he submitted it. — Update:
Context & Ripple Effects
Google Voice arrived on mobile in July 2009 with native apps for Blackberry and Android — but iPhone users got nothing native, and by August 2009 the word was that Google Voice would instead be retooled as a Web app for iPhone, leaving third-party developer Sean Kovacs's GV Mobile frozen out of the App Store.
The submission today closes that loop from the other direction: rather than waiting on Google, Kovacs has put his own GV Mobile client back in front of Apple's reviewers, following a reported signal that the app would be re-approved. If accepted, an independent developer's app — not Google's own — becomes the first native Google Voice client on iOS.
First-order effects
- Kovacs's GV Mobile goes from shelved to under active App Store review, putting his app one approval away from serving iPhone users who have been limited to browser-based access since 2009.
Second-order effects
- An acceptance would pressure Apple to clarify its position on Google Voice broadly — including whether an official Google-built iPhone client gets the same path Blackberry and Android users already have.
Third-order effects
- If the reversal holds, it marks a shift in App Store gatekeeping: categories once pushed to Web-app workarounds because of reviewer discretion become eligible again for native distribution, restoring parity between platforms.
The trend: App Store review discretion over carrier-sensitive telephony apps is loosening, pulling iPhone back toward native-client parity with rival platforms.