A couple of weeks ago, I had decided that it was time to make Google Voice a more central part of my communication workflow. Having not launched GV Mobile in a while, I fired it up to reacquaint myself with the interface, capabilities, etc. Trouble is, I couldn’t authenticate with Google. I triple-checked my credentials but the app would just throw an error on launch and that was that. A couple of people on Twitter had mentioned having the same issue and a quick Google search informed me that, sure enough, the app no longer worked. Apparently, Google had modified the Voice API such that authentication now worked differently than it did when GV Mobile was written. Because the app no longer had Apple’s seal of approval, I had little recourse because there obviously weren’t going to be any updates to the app anytime soon.
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I can confidently say that this little hiccup has seriously cramped my plans for more completely adopting Google Voice.
Brett raises the question of how users should handle orphaned/forgotten/rejected apps. It’s a legitimate question as long as Apple continues to reject applications or — even worse — pull apps from the App Store after approving them for sale.
The first option is for users to simply adapt. Most of the time, this means finding a web app that does what the native app was designed to do or finding another way to get the certain tasks completed.
Or users can take things into their own hands. I’ve discussed jailbreaking here before, and here’s what I said then:
For me, jailbreaking my iPhone isn’t about sticking it to the man or shaking my fist at Apple. I just want my iPhone to do things Apple won’t allow. If Apple would allow for these apps via the App Store, I’d go that route. But they don’t, so I jailbreak.
I still believe this, and I think it’s a great solution to Brett’s problem with GV Mobile no longer working. There is a fully-functioning, often-updated version of the app on the Cydia app store, which is a simple jailbreak away.
One big argument against jailbreaking is that it’s too complicated for the average user. True — I would never recommend my mom jailbreak an iPhone. It can be risky, and requires an understanding that by playing in the street, sometimes you have to dodge traffic.
But the average user isn’t interested in setting up Google Voice. It’s a geeky thing to re-route your voice traffic through a web service. People who want to use Google Voice on their iPhone are exactly the people who will (and have) jailbreak to use it.
Secondly, there is an entire platform that supports — even encourages — using Google Voice. If Google Voice is integral to your life, by an Android device. Really — Android is a solid OS that has really come into it’s own with the 2.0 release.
Google Voice isn’t a unique issue. NetShare was an app that Apple approved in the early days of the App Store that allowed tethering. While it still runs on current iPhone hardware and software, PDANet — which also allows tethering — is also for download via Cydia. Again, users who would tether would jailbreak.
So Brett, if you want your iPhone to do things that Apple doesn’t allow, just jailbreak the thing and move on.