Google Voice Coming to the iPhone, Bypasses the App Store

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Starting today, iPhone users trying to get Google Voice on their handsets have the way to do it. Earlier blocked from the App Store, Mountain View has proved pretty slick in bypassing “Apple’s gatekeepers”, and have announced today that Google Voice comes to the iPhone not as an iPhone app, but as a web based app that you download via the smartphone’s HTML 5 browser.

According to Google’s Senior Product Manager, Vincent Paquet, the company’s Internet phone service should work with any HTML5-compliant device, but for the time being it only supports Apple and Palm’s platforms. The new Google Voice installed will allow iPhone users to make cheap long-distance calls to mobile phone numbers from your contacts list that is cached in a browser page — just like the mobile version of Gmail stores them, except that here you’ll need to sync your contacts to your Google account first.

What’s a bit different with this browser-based Google Voice application is that when you’re placing phone calls you’ll be required to choose the recipient and then call one of their local numbers and pay the low rates, directly through Google, even if it’s an international call.

The new Google Voice for the iPhone is not the perfect solution, but for the time being, it’s the best we can get.

And did we mention webOS users get it, too?

[via Geeky-Gadgets]