Apple Has Already Approved The Official Google Voice App For iPhone, Expect It Soon
The App Store review office at 1 Infinite Loop has officially frozen over: we've gotten word that the official Google Voice application is on its way to the iPhone in the next few weeks.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google's iPhone strategy for Voice has been forced detours for over a year: after the native app was shut out of the App Store in 2009, reports followed that Google would retool Voice as a Web app for iPhone, and by December 2009 it was back on the device through the browser via VoiceCentral. This month the door reopened — GV Mobile was resubmitted to the App Store on September 13, and on September 17 Apple let a Google Voice application into the store again.
The step reported here is the bigger one: per TechCrunch's reporting, Apple has approved Google's own first-party client, not just a third-party wrapper, with launch expected within weeks. Approval of the official app converts Google's browser workaround into a native App Store presence — the endgame of a standoff that made Apple's review process a public flashpoint.
First-order effects
- iPhone users get a sanctioned, native Google Voice client within weeks, replacing the VoiceCentral browser route Google built after its 2009 exclusion.
- Google moves Voice distribution onto Apple's terms inside the App Store rather than around them on the open web, gaining push notifications, home-screen placement, and App Store visibility.
Second-order effects
- Third-party Google Voice clients — GV Mobile and the VoiceCentral-style wrappers that filled the vacuum — now compete against a free, official app from the service's owner, squeezing their reason to exist.
- Other carriers and developers whose apps were stalled at review gain a precedent to cite: Apple has admitted a first-party telephony competitor, weakening the 'duplicate functionality' rationale for rejections.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, App Store review shifts from a strategic gate Apple can hold against rivals toward a compliance function — with each high-profile reversal making the next rejection harder to defend publicly.
- Platform owners' curation power over voice and communications apps becomes a standing point of friction with developers and regulators, the structural question this whole saga has been circling since 2009.
The trend: Smartphone platform owners are being pushed, case by case, from discretionary App Store gatekeeping toward predictable rules as their review decisions draw developer, press, and regulator scrutiny.