I have been on the Google Kool-Aid since they first released Gmail Beta. I still use nearly all Google products for my work, my family, anything I can. When Google Voice came to Android, I was more than excited. I bought my wife a Cliq, took text messaging off my G1 and her phone, and never looked back. I never use MMS, so I never even noticed it was missing. What I did notice, however, was how tightly integrated Voice was with Android. It didn’t seem to affect my daily use at all, until cool stuff started coming out for text messaging for Android, but did not include support for Google Voice. It was more than frustrating, and it’s only gotten worse. Google Voice needs to integrate deeper than just the platform, Voice needs to be included in the party as well.
Take a look at ChompSMS, or Handcent, or any of the others out there. No Google Voice support at all. Voice systems like Vlingo, where you can speak “Text Alex ‘What will you do without power?'” and as long as you have normal SMS, it goes. It’s awesome, I WANT IT! What’s probably the most frustrating is the way this just gets ignored! Is MMS really more important than this, when 99% of the phones in the US are capable of sending that same message as an email? At least with MMS there is a way around it, and you aren’t forced to deal with this horrible combination of fluid integration but zero third party support. Where are the app developers in this? Every time I bring up Voice integration at trade shows, I get looked at like some sort of sad child who wants his ice cream off the street. Why isn’t this something more developers care about? You do realize that Voice users are increasing every minute, and we CAN’T USE YOUR PRODUCTS, right?
For the moment, this is unresolved. It’s a small soapbox, but one I will continue to stand on in the hopes that developers and Google will get together and enhance this product to be as amazing as it really could be. In the mean time, however, I am either stuck using Google Voice, or stuck using a different number for my text messages. Either way, I feel like we lose, and hope that someone steps up to the challenge.
