Filed under: iPhone, App Review
Black Swan brings Google Voice back to the iPhone without the App Store
Google Voice on the iPhone has been something of a sore subject for me. If you need a full-recap of the whole sordid iPhone/Google Voice story see this story from December or more of our coverage. I even started a little site devoted to waiting for Google Voice on the iPhone called IsGoogleVoiceAvailableForTheiPhone.com.
It has been 6 months and 19 days since Apple claimed it had not "rejected" Google Voice but was "studying" it. During the course of Apple's "study" the company moved to purge all existing Google Voice apps from the App Store.
There were three reactions to this from developers:
Google revamped the Mobile Google Voice page so that it looks a lot nicer on the iPhone.
GV Mobile released its app for free on Cydia for those who have jailbroken iPhones.
The folks behind Voice Central went a different route. They decided to make a web app instead. I've been using it in beta for the past few months, but as of today it has been released to the public as Black Swan.
The difference between the Mobile Google Voice site from Google and Black Swan is that Black Swan is stored locally on your iPhone, like Pie Guy from Neven Mrgan of Panic.com. Riverturn calls this a "weblication," which is a fairly awful name, but apparently they aren't the first ones to use it.
An obvious benefit is that Riverturn doesn't need to wait for Apple to approve any changes, or wait for Apple to finish "studying" Google Voice. Simply go to the website and download it to your iPhone.
It works really well, much better than I had initially expected it would. You can easily access voicemails to listen to them or read the transcripts. The "Call Details" page offers a button to call or SMS them back either from your iPhone or through Google Voice. There's a list of recent calls just like the regular iPhone app. Without question Black Swan is the best way to use Google Voice on your iPhone. If you pre-loaded this on an iPhone, I doubt most people would even realize that they aren't using a "regular" iPhone app. It even works in landscape mode.
The only bump in the road for me was that it does not use the contacts list on my iPhone, but instead uses the one from my Google account. I presume this is necessary because they can't access the Contacts list through a "weblication" and the good news is that you can setup the Address Book in OS X to sync with Google Contacts. The only ones who lose out are those who are using Google Apps, as a regular Gmail account is required for Google Voice.
There are two versions of the app available: a free, ad-supported version and a premium edition for $10/year payable either through Google Checkout or PayPal. Currently they are offering a discounted price of $6/year.
In addition to removing the ads, the Premium version also adds some features including support for Contact Photos, enabling/disabling "Do Not Disturb" and direct customer support. My general rule of thumb for things like this is to use the free version first to see if you actually end up wishing you had the premium features. Personally I found the ads were distracting enough that $6 seems like a bargain, especially knowing that Apple can't yank the rug out from under them again. There is a 7-day trial of the premium version; just stick a reminder in iCal for +6 days from now to remind you to evaluate if it's worth $6.
Who knows, maybe in a year's time Apple will have finished "studying" Google Voice. Ha ha! But seriously, I don't really expect that will ever happen. The good news is that as of today, most people will miss a native application a lot less.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
julian said 6:09PM on 3-09-2010
I am still figuring out how to import contacts but it is definitely a step up.
So disappointed -->apple.
Its awesome how much it looks and feels like a real app.
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Beto Verli said 6:20PM on 3-09-2010
Just Sync your Google Contacts with iPhone Contacts through the Exchange server thing... works perfectly... at the end, you will have the same contact list in both sides (iphone contact app and Swan..)
BRAD said 6:18PM on 3-09-2010
Very impressed on how standlone app'ish this feels!! If only we can merge Black Swan with Google Voice web page!! Ease of calling on Googles page, is really all I want! and too bad push doesn't work in it!
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Beto Verli said 6:21PM on 3-09-2010
The real missing fgeature here is PUSH for Google Voice SMS...
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Dorv said 10:20PM on 3-09-2010
If you have PUSH email, then you can send and receive your Google Voice SMS through that. Works brilliantly on my MobileMe account.
tanguy said 6:22PM on 3-09-2010
i've been beta testing blackswan for a while and i love it. its so much better than the google version
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Siriusy said 6:28PM on 3-09-2010
How is this better than gv mobile+ ?
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DJFriar said 7:12PM on 3-09-2010
I'm curious about this as well.
TJ Luoma said 7:47PM on 3-12-2010
Well the obvious answer is that it doesn't require you to jailbreak…
efcostello said 6:31PM on 3-09-2010
Why am i redirected to a Paypal page when I try to register for the free version?
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nILS FRANKE said 1:47AM on 3-10-2010
same thing for skype ... no sign yet from them
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igepard said 7:13PM on 3-09-2010
Skype is available on App Store. The only problem is that it doesn't have Push Notifications.
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igepard said 7:16PM on 3-09-2010
The native version of Skype is available, but it doesn't have Push Notifications.
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Todd Sieling said 8:43PM on 3-09-2010
Yes, the web app hole, the giant hole in the argument that Apple is hyper-controlling and bent on dominating your mind.
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Charlie said 9:01PM on 3-09-2010
There's a couple of things that I'm not wild about with this:
1. Your gmail credentials pass through their middleware server. They say it's encrypted and never stored on their servers, but who knows. You have to trust them.
2. I don't like that I have to sit there like a jerk waiting for the GV to call me back. I much prefer google's web app in that I initiate the outbound call. On the flipside (if #1 weren't an issue) this would actually be a nice thing to happen if at home using a land line phone - kind of a gv remote.
3. Having to pay a yearly fee. I'd much prefer to pay a one time fee. GV is a free service, but if you decide to use this, it moves to $10 / year.
I'm not entirely sure how GV fits it my life yet, but I think I'm going to stick with Google's solution.
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Sebastian said 12:15AM on 3-10-2010
Very difficult to trust anyone with my Gmail password. Just not going to happen no matter what they say about security.
Giving your password away ≠security
Joshua Ochs said 12:42AM on 3-10-2010
Agreed. Those were my two major issues - passing some of my most sensitive credentials (*) through a third party service, but why am I going to pay a recurring fee for a marginally nicer interface to a free service? It boggles my mind.
(* Don't think your e-mail is sensitive? Just where do you think all of your account password reset instructions go, along with all of your account registration e-mails?)
Murphy Mac said 9:02PM on 3-09-2010
Feds: If you want to be taken seriously don't say you're investigating when you're not. They should have asked Apple to provide logs of the time they're spending "studying" the GV app.
Instead Apple has insulted everyone, starting with the customers who would like to use GV.
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Bryan Walls said 9:02PM on 3-09-2010
I'm still hoping to someday get a Google Voice invitation!
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Drakhul said 10:17AM on 3-10-2010
I have 3 invitations...