Want Easy Google Voice Access on Your iPhone? Go Old School with a Bookmarklet!
David over at ironicsans shared this little piece of inspired genius with us: Google Voice Speed Dial Bookmarklet Generator.
Bookmarklets are little snippets of JavaScript saved as bookmarks that, before there were apps on the iPhone, did all sorts of wonderful things (editor emeritus Mike Overbo whipped up a smorgasbord of them a couple years back). Since Google Voice apps are currently forbidden in the App Store, David’s solution works similar wonders for them:
With bookmarklets you can call your GV contacts with one tap, and keep them organized in Safari Bookmarks folders. [The] simplest way to use it is to point your iPhone browser to http://www.ironicsans.com/gv
If you give it a try, let us know how it works for you!
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:50 pm
It worked for me!
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Sounds like they need to ban mobile safari for dual functionality
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:01 pm
And weather apps, and tip calculators.
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Yup, it does work.
The odd thing is, you start the call from the Google Voice page, by tapping Safari contacts, and selecting the saved contact. (If you don’t start from the google voice page you get the dread 403 Forbidden page).
So you are sitting there waiting for something to happen on the screen, and a Call comes in from Unknown.
So you answer the call, and silence, and eventually it rings, and someone answers suspiciously, because caller id is not always known to them. Call quality not perfect, but still usable.
This is sort of a LONG way around to make it work.
You can JUST as easily, go to http://www.google.com/voice and log in on your iPhone, and then tap Contacts at the top, find the contact you want, and tap the little Call button. The same process works.
So if you are syncing your contacts with Google Anyway, (and why wouldn’t you?) then they are ALREADY in your Contacts for your Google Voice account, and all you have to do is click Click them to call them.
Yes, you get charged minutes by ATT for an incoming call, but you don’t get charged long distance minutes, so a simple local-only calling plan will work.
If we had the true Google Voice App, everything could be done without visiting a webpage and without that incoming call from Unknown.
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Luckily I picked up the free version of GV Mobile so I can make outbound calls right from my regular phonebook
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:47 pm
I’m going to try tonight when reach home.
Cheers~~~
August 4th, 2009 at 3:19 am
Thank god I downloaded all the Google voice apps before they were gone from itunes…! I use VoiceCentral and its pretty good
and plus GV is available in cydia (but i am sure everyone already knows)
August 4th, 2009 at 7:31 am
The easiest way is to jailbreak and get GV through Cydia. No more worries after that. I am sure Apple is driving more iPhone owners to jailbreak after this latest fail.
BTW – AT&T, where is our MMS and tethering? Why is everyone letting this major fail go by the wayside? Did AT&T get GV banned from the App store to get the heat off of them and on Apple?
August 4th, 2009 at 8:07 am
Well this morning I woke up and waiting in my gmail inbox was my invite to join Google Voice. Thanks Apple, prob will jailbreak tonight and get GV Mobile.
August 4th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Google, seeing all the hype in the press, decides to twist the knife a bit:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/audio-care-packages-for-service-members.html
August 4th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Pretty sweet of Google to do this.