[eblade]

GVoice for webOS has been ported to the PlayBook, bringing the designed-for-tablet Enyo styled interface along with it.

With over 2500 users, GVoice is a popular, fully functional application for accessing Google Voice via your PlayBook (and Android and webOS handhelds and tablets), with access to all your SMS and Voice messages.

Designed primarily as a SMS messaging app, GVoice provides instant access to all of the various message boxes available from Google Voice, as well as features to make use of the Google Voice Contacts, Google Voice call forwarding, Do-not-Disturb setting, and even listening to Voicemail* directly on your PlayBook.

If you use Google Voice for your SMS texting needs, though, this is where GVoice truly shines -- it was built as I use Voice almost exclusively for it's SMS ability, and it is super convenient to be able to nearly instantly access several years worth of SMS history, without having to spend half a day scrolling through it. Search and direct-page access are available to reach your history, and the default "Overview" display will show you the complete most recent conversations (or the most recently selected page of conversations).

Upcoming updates will add notification features, so you can get that nice warm red glow as soon as you receive new messages, as well as other new features as they are implemented.

*Voicemail playback support is currently implemented through a Flash player proxy and not directly within the app itself. This may take some time to figure out exactly how to achieve direct playback, as the PlayBook security system that is causing it to not work properly is similar to the webOS one that gave me no end of trouble, however, there is no clear way to work around it at this time. I was advised to wait for BBX for that to happen, but will hopefully find a way to deal with it before then.

GVoice home page is at: GVoice for webOS (and other mobiles!)

Or you can check out the app page on the App World at: Buy GVoice for BlackBerry PlayBook - Download GVoice for BlackBerry PlayBook - Buy Apps from BlackBerry App World

If you like GVoice, please leave a review, and if you have any problems or suggestions, please let me know. Please do NOT leave problem and suggestion reports in the reviews section, as once you leave a review, there is no way to ever change it.

Thank you very much for your attention!
- Eric

[sjc1963]

What if you already bought a copy for another device? Can one get a free copy for Playbook?

[Chrisy]

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up! I use Google Voice for SMS! This will be handy!

[bounce007]

Wow... I have been saying I would love an app to access my Google Voice Account cuz the android apk I converted wasn't doing it for me. Thanks gonna buy it.

[eblade]

The Android Google Voice app just doesn't do it for me, either. Nor does using the website on a mobile! The mobile version is missing too much, and the desktop version kind of sucks on a tablet.

Just to be clear, this is not the "Gvoice" app that does VoIP via Google Talk using your Google Voice phone number, that is available in Android. This is a port of GVoice for webOS. I -think- mine existed first. On Android, mine's called GVoiceA.

I need to come up with better names, I guess.

[loreburne]

Does anyone know if this will work in the UK? I know the normal Google Voice ones does now...the one I use is called Google Talk (with allows text chat and voice / video chat with other users)

[iatedeadpeople]

Does anyone know if this will work in the UK? I know the normal Google Voice ones does now...the one I use is called Google Talk (with allows text chat and voice / video chat with other users)

where did you get the version you are using?

[loreburne]

where did you get the version you are using?

Google Chat - Chat with family and friends

[eblade]

Google Talk/Chat is for text chat/VoIP, and Google Voice is for SMS text and call-fowarding functions. Yeah, I know, it's confusing. It's my understanding that you can't sign up for Google Voice from a non-US IP Address, but once you're signed up, you can use it from anywhere.

If your account works at http://voice.google.com/ then it should work with the app. Although there is such a thing as a "Limited" account that doesn't have access to SMS texting, I have no idea how to actually get a "Limited" account to see if that works. I've heard it doesn't.

[loreburne]

Google Talk/Chat is for text chat/VoIP, and Google Voice is for SMS text and call-fowarding functions. Yeah, I know, it's confusing. It's my understanding that you can't sign up for Google Voice from a non-US IP Address, but once you're signed up, you can use it from anywhere.

If your account works at http://voice.google.com/ then it should work with the app. Although there is such a thing as a "Limited" account that doesn't have access to SMS texting, I have no idea how to actually get a "Limited" account to see if that works. I've heard it doesn't.

Thanks for the explanation....... I will give it a try....I really only use it for text chat at the moment

[eblade]

Another note, as explained in the app description -- GVoice is not a VoIP program. You cannot use it to directly make calls. It forwards calls via Google Voice, but it does not let you make calls using the device as a telephone. (although holding a PlayBook up to your head like a telephone does sound like a great way to get people to stare at you )

[loreburne]

Another note, as explained in the app description -- GVoice is not a VoIP program. You cannot use it to directly make calls. It forwards calls via Google Voice, but it does not let you make calls using the device as a telephone. (although holding a PlayBook up to your head like a telephone does sound like a great way to get people to stare at you )

LOL yep! Not as bad as other Tablets though!

[greatwiseone]

Great to see some of the webOS dev's porting their webOS dev over to the PlayBook! Hopefully more will follow!

[eblade]

LOL yep! Not as bad as other Tablets though!

Click to view quoted image

Ha! We could go back to the Nokia side-talkin' era, if anyone remembers that..


/hotlink

[eblade]

btw, I've got an update in the pipe that will provide new message notifications (so long as you're configured to allow apps to run in background) and makes use of the "notes" feature that I recently discovered Google provides.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions for replacing the contacts interface, I've heard from a few people with truly excessively large numbers of Google Voice contacts, and the current interface really doesn't deal with that well (i only have 80) . . would love to hear some ideas.

[eblade]

Hey guys. I planned for another update to be ready at this time, however, my PlayBook has broken, and my replacement won't be available for probably a week or so. There's a glitch that is only occuring on device, not within the current emulator, and I can't release it with a bug that crashes the whole operating system. :-S

[eblade]

Here's the deal: A replacement PlayBook is on it's way. Hopefully it will arrive here Fri or Saturday, I'll get this nasty bug fixed that is crashing the PlayBook every time you try to edit a note (it also crashes Android too, so we are not alone here), quickly implement an alert sound for notifications, and get an update out there.

Here's where reality sticks it's nasty thorns out, though: I have to work a metric crapton of hours on my regular jobs this weekend. If these problems don't turn out to be quickly solvable, it'll have to wait a few more days, or I may have to not include the new note function, so that we can all have notifications working.

After that, I do research into how to get Voicemail to work without loading a Flash plugin via the web browser.

So, some nice new things are in the pipes, and will be coming.

[AsianNRG]

Let me start by saying Thank You for creating a Google Voice App on the PlayBook. I just upgraded GVoice to version 1.0.3.1 but am having problems with the Notification Alerts. I'll provide my current settings first: Playbook OS 2.0.0.7971; Application Behavior set to Showcase; GVoice notifications turned on with Default alert tone; Both Foreground and Background Refresh set to 1 minute. The Inbox seems to automatically refresh only when the PlayBook is NOT in StandBy or Locked Mode. Even then, I only get a notification alert tone only after I click OK to the Notification Request Prompt that ONLY pops up the first time I get a text right after I load up GVoice. I have to do this EVERYTIME I load up GVoice. The problem is that the Notification Request Prompt only pops up when I get an initial text so that means I have to text myself right after I load GVoice or I will never hear any alert tones for incoming texts. After I click OK to the Notification Request Prompt, the alert tones seem to work fine as long as I am NOT in StandBy. As soon as the PlayBook goes into StandBy, the Inbox won't refresh thus no alert tones. However, when the PlayBook wakes up the Inbox starts to refresh itself again. I really need to be alerted when the PlayBook is in StandBy Mode. Is this possible? Also, is it possible to have GVoice come into focus when I click on the Notification Text Bubble on the PlayBook's Top Status Bar? Is there a way to reply to the text from the same Notification Text Bubble? One last question: is it possible to have a Push Notification type system like the Native Email App? I get my Google Voice text emailed to me so I get an email alert 3 seconds right after I click the Send Button to text myself. With GVoice, I get an alert after 20+ seconds to 1 minute after I sent the text. Please let me know how I can be of any service. I really want to know exactly when I receive a text especially in StandBy Mode. Thanks again for all your hard work...

[eblade]

Thank you very much, AsianNRG.

I wish that I could say that this will get fixed right away, however, I do not have a solution for much of these problems. Most of these are things that RIM are "working on".

The PlayBook notification system for webKit apps requires you to give it notification permission every time the app is run. webKit apps are completely suspended shortly after the PlayBook goes into suspend mode, unless you are playing some kind of music or audio, and then it seems to continue running. The PlayBook does not have any kind of a way to force it to wake up for an app to do something, like check messages. The "click" event for notifications is broken, so tapping on it does not notify the app. There is no way to bring the app forward, even when the click event does work.

I have filed problem reports with RIM on every single one of those issues, and I hope that they will be addressed in updates. I'm reasonably certain that at least the notification permission thing is being looked at.

There is a fix already in the pipe to fix the error message that pops up every time you receive a message if the alert tone is set to "None". (that's also a bug report that I've filed)

What I'm going to do for the short term, while I search for currently unknown ways to get around these other problems, if there are any, is move the sound play so that it happens before we call the notification, instead of after -- so that at least the sound will play before the "Allow notifications" box comes up, hopefully.

There is no real way to do true push notifications. Trust me, I wish I didn't have to reload the inbox every X minutes, it's a pain in the . I can't recall the name of the services, but there is at least one, i think two or three, different services out there that will provide a sort of push notification for Google Voice - however, that requires giving your Google login information to a third party, or forwarding your messages to a third party.

Probably the fastest way to get notifications, is to use the option to forward SMS to your email, and use the PlayBook's email client. It would be awesome if the email client had the ability to play specific notifications based on email filters, however, I can't think of any mobile email client that has done anything involving email filtering or having individual notifications.

So, either we poll at the user's end, or you give your login information to a third party, or you forward your email alerts to a third party. I went with the poll option..

Again, thank you for your support, and I'm trying to work with the OS developers to get this stuff into a state where it's more useful.

[eblade]

New update has been sent for approval - plays the notification sound before posting the request for approval, eliminates the error box that comes up when "None" is set as the notification.

Still searching for answers on the other things.

[eblade]

Update is out. People please let me know if that helps, and what else I can do to make this work better for us all. I've been trying to use my PlayBook as my main gvoice device, but i'm not coming up with any great ideas, or even any serious bugs, other than the repeating notification alert thing that i will hopefulyl have a fix for soon.

[Scoot]

does this only work with wifi or does this work with bridge connection as well?

[eblade]

I do not know the answer to that - I don't have a device to Bridge with. (if someone wants to float me a ATT compatible device that I can try that with, I'd be happy to ) If the connection appears to an app as a regular internet connection, it should work. I don't know about if it appears as something else.

[Scoot]

i was just wondering i know some apps do not work while bridged only on wifi. actually most of the apps i want to use only work on wifi and since my carrier took my hotspot away i can only bridge now. so irc app world and a few others will not work while bridged. i don't want to buy an app that is only wifi since there isn't wifi everywhere i go anymore. if someone could answer this for me that would be great.

[eblade]

I will poke around and see what I can find out - if anyone else can let me know, in case I don't find anything, I'd appreciate it too.