How the official Google Voice app stacks up against GV Connect and GV Mobile+
This month Google released the official Google Voice app with much fanfare. While some may think this spelled imminent doom for third party developers, others (myself included) aren’t quite so sure. Back in September I reviewed the GV Connect and GV Mobile + apps for iPhone, and am now ready to compare them with the official GV app.
Upon installing the first thing that greeted me was a request to send push notifications for missed calls, SMS and voice messages. Yes! This was a major missing piece of the puzzle with both GV Connect and GV Mobile+. The inbox is integrated with voice and text messages, and enhanced with the addition of profile pics when available. Great feature allowing you to put a face to a name/number.
The interface is clean, intuitive and easy to use for the most part – that is – when it works. I’ve had many instances where the apps crashes, freezes or is non-responsive. This buggyness (is that a word?) is compounded by the fact that upon start up, the app does not appear to display history or stored messages locally. The app (at least from what I can tell) has to sync with Google servers first before displaying older messages. This is definitely not the case with either of the two 3rd party apps.
Another annoyance is not being able to toggle and view only unopened messages. GV Mobile+ is the same way, but GV Connect does have this feature. Quick Dial (favorites) can be set and adjusted by order of preference, but share the same screen as recent calls.
Conclusion: In their attempt to simplify, Google may have combined some features to appear together that will take some getting used to. Cosmetics aside, the real problem is the lack of stability, failure to launch and having to wait and wait for the message history to load. An update is most certainly in the works. Till then, I find myself still using the 3rd party apps for most everything, but enjoying the push notifications that come from Google’s GV app.
I bought GV Mobile + over GV Connect when they both came out nearly simultaneously because, frankly, GV Mobile + had an attractive icon and GV Connect had a wretchedly bad icon. The early reviews seemed to prefer GV Mobile + so felt vindicated in my choice. I did and do like GV Mobile +.
When Google’s own GV app for iPhone appeared, I downloaded it and at first was pleased. However, it seemed rather barebones and lacking in in-app settings that GV Mobile + had. Also, ovver time it appeared GV Connect had had frequent updates and in checking screenshots of it and reading reviews, I decided–AFTER having bought GV Mobile + AND having downloaded the free Google app–to buy GV Connect. I was intrigued by what appeared to be its fuller feature set than either of the others. I have to admit, though, I wasn’t willing to buy it until I found and tested a method of replacing icons on the iPhone.
I bought GV Connect, replaced its embarrassingly bad icon with a better one I found on the web, and I have found it to be the best of the three GV apps…so far. I deleted Google’s app from my iPhone, but kept GV Mobile +, because it’s developer, Sean Kovacs, promises an imminent major update that he says will make it the best GV app available. We’ll see.
For push notifications, I use Notifo, which I’m very happy with. I’d try Boxcar, which is getting all the raves these days, but…why bother, with Notifo working so well?
(If Google updates their app to add features, maybe I’ll reinstall it; as it is, their GV web app is better than their iPhone app.)
Robert – thanks so much for your comment. I’m sure a number of people had similar experiences where they tried one, wanted more, and then tried the others. Since you have access to all three, you can always go back and forth when improvements come down the pike.