Google Voice app powerful control panel, not calling program

Google Voice's iPhone app has finally entered the building. Apple's long-delayed approval arrived Tuesday, and the free app could be downloaded at will.

The app provides full Google Voice functionality, but it's important to know a critical point: The app doesn't make Internet phone calls.

The Google Voice system, called Grand Central before Google's acquisition, is more like a telephony management program. Any phone lines you already have are turned into powerful extensions of the main telephone number you're assigned when you sign up.

The service, like the app, is free, but only available to U.S. residents. Google did away with an invitation requirement in June.

Until recently, to use the service for anything except texting and receiving voice mail, you had to associate phone numbers with Google Voice. But in August, Google muddied the waters by adding voice calling as a feature within Gmail with a separately installed audio/video chat browser plug-in for Mac, Windows, and flavors of Linux.

Gmail has already become a communications hub for mail and chat. That's also where you find Buzz, the horribly launched social-networking service that's still available in Gmail unless you disable it. (I have.)

The Google Voice iPhone app remains a control panel, not a calling program, in this first released version. But it's a powerful control panel if you're willing to tell your friends, associates, and relatives to call only your Google Voice number.

As a hub, Google Voice lets you connect all the phone numbers you may have — home, work, cell and even real phone numbers attached to Vonage and Skype. You can set up rules to handle incoming calls to the Google Voice number and how they're divvied out among lines.

Every line can ring at once, call screening can prevent irritating or unwanted callers, the time of day can determine behavior, and some callers (by their Caller ID number) can receive different treatment. I've had the experience of having four lines light up at once all around me when someone calls my Google Voice number.

Outgoing calls can now be made in three varieties, with the addition of the iPhone app.

From a browser logged in to the Google Voice portal, you can enter a phone number and choose which line you want the outgoing call routed to. Click Connect, and the line you choose rings first; pick up and then Google calls the other end and connects you to that party.

Calls to U.S. and Canadian numbers are free at least until the end of the year. Rates to other countries are competitive. You can also place a call from Gmail, as noted above, and use a computer headset to handle the call.

The iPhone app adds a third choice, previously available through a Web app customized for the iPhone. Dial from the new app, and the call is passed to your regular iPhone dialing system. But instead of dialing the number directly, your phone calls a special Google number that's synced with your call. That number then connects you to the destination number, whether in the United States or abroad.

You use minutes from your AT&T voice pool for these calls, but don't pay AT&T international rates for calls outside the U.S.

The reason to place outgoing U.S. calls through the app? Google tracks them if you want to have a single call record, available from the Web or the app.

Oddly, the iPhone app doesn't seem to have access to your Google Contacts, an oversight that may have to do with Apple making a 15-month-old app available; Google will now presumably update the program and improve it.

Google Voice also handles text messaging and voice mail. Text messages are free to send and receive on the Google end, but your recipient or sender pays whatever costs his or her carrier applies. Voice-mail messages are recorded and automatically transcribed.

The iPhone app provides access to a unified inbox that mixes voice call records, voice mail, and SMS.

The Google Voice approach requires an all-in commitment for greatest utility, and the app makes it far easier to manage. If you're looking for straight VoIP support that doesn't tap voice minutes, two strong contenders keep improving: Skype and Line2.

Both Skype and Line2 have full iOS 4 background support, handle calls over 3G data and Wi-Fi connections, and work on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Skype has a worldwide system of hundreds of millions of users who can be called directly through the app, or you can place and receive calls from the public phone system, too, for modest additional fees ($3 per month for unlimited outgoing U.S. and Canadian calls, for instance).

Line2 works on a subscription model at $9.95 per month (after a 30-day free trial) for unlimited incoming calls, voice mail, and U.S. texting, and unmetered outgoing calls to the U.S. or Canada. The program uses VoIP as available, but can also be set to perform the call-through trick over your voice line that Google Voice uses.

The best thing about Google Voice appearing in app form is that we no longer need to settle for a second-best Web app if Google's alternative is what we need. Between Google Voice, Skype and Line2, anyone seeking a robust alternative to straight AT&T calling now has options to consider.

Glenn Fleishman writes the Practical Mac column for Personal Technology and about technology in general for The Seattle Times and other publications. Send questions to gfleishman@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/ columnists