GV Mobile / MaRussia as a Google Voice Replacement

12. Jan, 2010 0 Comments

Sean Kovacs, the developer of the previously-on-the-app-store GV Mobile, has been hard at work lately on a new project.

After developing GV Mobile, an app for the iPhone which allows near seamless integration and access to google voice, Sean became one of the growing number of developers to become intimately familiar with Apple’s less than developer-friendly approval process for apps. Despite being approved for the app store, and appearing there for some time, Apple pulled the app and suspended sales. Why exactly is still a matter of discussion, but one thing appears certain – GV Mobile won’t re-appear on the app store.

More details after the break.

Sean has since released GV Mobile on Cydia, the free app store for jailbroken iPhones, and GV Mobile has continued in development, with a small number of users doing beta testing. While the Cydia version works, one of the key features to be implemented – push notifications – require that the app be used through Apple’s regular channels. Push notifications would allow an incoming call to your google voice number to be pushed to the GV Mobile app on your iPhone even when the program isn’t running. This means you could receive the call through GV Mobile without having to keep the app running continuously. Push notifications do not work if you don’t go through Apple, so the Cydia version of the app will always lack some functionality.

I had a feeling that Sean would continue to work towards a google voice related app for the app store. It looks like that feeling wasn’t misplaced.

Sean posted a few tweets on his twitter account this morning that highlighted what he has been up to lately:

I contacted Sean for some comments, and understandably, he wants to keep the details under wraps until he gets the app approved and things start rolling, but a google voice-esque feature set would be a pretty useful app. Expect some more information soon.

He DID answer one question though: Canadian numbers should be supported in the future.