Last week Apple or AT&T rejected the official Google Voice app, and banned/removed other unofficial Google Voice apps in the App Store. The FCC decided to investigate, and they sent letters to Apple, AT&T, and Google to find out more info. You can see all the letters at TechCrunch.
AT&T responded to this by issuing the following statement:
“AT&T does not manage or approve applications for the App Store. We have received the letter and will, of course, respond to it.”
AT&T is not revealing much in this statement. They’re just saying that they don’t manage or approve applications, but of course we knew that too. Apple manages and approves all applications in the App Store. What we don’t know is whether AT&T had influenced Apple or been able to get them to remove all the Google Voice Apps.
According to Sean Kovacs, an Apple support representative Raymond C claims that GV Mobile was removed from the App Store at the request of AT&T. This has not been confirmed, but you can see a screenshot of the chat below.
Raymond C said the following:
Yea unfortunately at the request of AT&T GV was removed from the App store. I am truly sorry for the inconvenience and frustration on this unfortunate removal of a great application.
Maybe the FCC’s involvement may mean that Google Voice apps will be back, but don’t count on it. On the bright side, you can still jailbreak and download GV Mobile from Cydia, and Google has said that they will be working on a mobile site version of Google Voice too. Google Voice will continue for the iPhone!
