Apple Finally Lets A Google Voice Application Into The App Store (Again)

Google Voice applications have had a pretty tumultuous history in the App Store. At first, Apple approved them, and the people rejoiced. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, they were pulled, with “duplicating features that the iPhone comes with (Dialer, SMS, etc).” cited as the reasoning. The people were, understandably, pretty friggin’ mad.

Over the past few days, the developers of at least two such applications have been indicating that they’d been hearing good news from Apple, suggesting that the Apps would be making an Apple-approved, no-jailbreak-required return. Sure enough, they’ve just started popping up in the App Store.

The first app to get approval, as far as I can tell, is Andreas Amann’s GV Connect, which just hit the App Store moments ago. Going for $2.99, the app provides Google Voice-powered support for calls, SMS, and voicemail — in other words, everything these apps were originally banned for.

We reached out to Sean Kovacz, developer of GV Mobile, which was pretty much the premiere Google Voice app when such things were initially allowed. His app, unfortunately, is still pending approval — a bit disheartening, given that he was one of the first off the bat in the original round.

Here’s to hoping that Apple keeps approving these things — and more importantly, that they stick around this time.