Google Voice enters the App Store – but not in the UK

Google’s 18-month bid to have its Google Voice app accepted on the iPhone App Store has finally ended in success – but only in the US.

The disputed app allows users to combine all their different landline and mobile phone numbers under one universal number. Crucially, it also allows users to benefit from cheap international calls, free text messaging and a replacement for the iPhone’s voicemail system, which are the features most likely to have upset Apple and its network partners.

Google first submitted the Voice app in early 2009, but it seemed to disappear down the Apple memory hole, with Google claiming the App had been rejected, while Apple insisted it was merely under evaluation.

The row over the app’s approval prompted an investigation by the US Federal Communications Commission, perhaps prompting Apple to relax its App Store restrictions last year.

Google plotted a neat path around Apple’s roadblock earlier this year, when it launched a HTML5-based web version of the app for iPhone owners.

Now, Apple has conceded defeat and admitted Google Voice to the App Store – although the service is currently only available in the US.

Google has yet to officially release Google Voice in the UK, although there are crafty workarounds that allow you to benefit from free calls to the US, using the Google Voice console built into Gmail.