The Mountain View giant has unveiled an update to their Google Voice app (Blackberry and Android fans only) that reduces the amount of time it takes for you to connect with friends, foes and everyone in between.
Today we are launching an enhancement to the Google Voice mobile app on Android and Blackberry phones, which makes placing calls much faster. We call this feature “direct access numbers.†Here’s how it works:Until today, the Google Voice app had to make a request to the Google Voice server every time you wanted to make a call to send us the phone number you wanted to dial. Then the call would be connected via a Google Voice access number. With direct access numbers, we assign a unique phone number to every person you call. This means that we no longer need to use your data network to access the server each time you make a call, so calls will be placed much faster. (Google Voice Blog)
With Android fever at an all time high and Blackberry 6 OS coming out soon, this latest update will help Google Voice remain competitive against larger rivals (like Skype).
Unfortunately Google Voice is still only available for users living within the United States (despite demand for international expansion by the search engine’s fans).
Google has not yet revealed whether or not they will consider creating a Google Voice app for Windows 7 mobile (that is assuming Microsoft will allow them too), but either way its good to see Google give their VoIP-like app a speed boost (even if us iPhone fans can never see it). :-(
Originally posted on July 22, 2010 @ 2:52 pm