Google has taken its Voice app down from the iPhone and iPad App Store after numerous customers who upgraded to iOS 5 reported repeated application crashes. Dozens of customers logged complaints in a Google Voice support forum titled “Voice App Crashes Frequently on iOS,” with one saying, “After updating to iOS 5, the Google Voice app began to crash continuously. It received push notifications perfectly, but I was unable to open the app to see them because it would crash immediately upon opening, before even displaying any graphics.”
Google Voice Product Manager Vincent Paquet told users late last week that the company has "found the sign in bug and have come up with a fix. We are testing it and will release an update as soon as we can.” But on Saturday, Paquet returned to the support forum and wrote that “we have removed the app from the App store so it does not impact more users. We’ll have a new one ASAP.”
As of Monday, the App Store still does not contain Google Voice, although Google’s Search, Books and Earth apps are still available. Some people who installed Google Voice prior to the application being removed from the App Store are using it with no problems. Engadget says it has been using version 1.3.0.1771 on an iPhone 4 with iOS 5 without issue, and Ars Associate Writer Casey Johnston says the same. But if you don’t have Voice on your iOS device, you’ll have to wait a bit before you can install it from the App Store. Google’s cache of the Voice app is still available but clicking on the page results in the error “The item you’ve requested is not currently available in the US store.”
