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Google: no comment on resubmitting official Voice app for iPhone

Though Apple has revised its App Store review policies to allow services like Google Voice, the search giant has not announced any plans to resubmit its own application, which sat in limbo and spurred a federal inquiry a year ago.

When contacted Monday by AppleInsider, Google noted that iPhone users can still use the Web-based Google Voice dialer, which allows users to activate a call through the telephony service. The company, however, declined to comment on whether it would resubmit its native application, which Apple refused to accept into the App Store last year.

"We currently offer Google Voice mobile apps for Blackberry and Android, and we offer an HTML5 web app for the iPhone," a Google spokesperson said. "We have nothing further to announce at this time."

On Sunday, applications that access the Google Voice service began appearing in the App Store, after being banished for more than a year. The first two that became available were GV Mobile + and GV Connect.

The acceptance of the Google Voice applications came after Apple revised and published its own App Store Review Guidelines, giving developers an idea of what kind of software will or will not be allowed for iOS devices.

Google Voice applications were originally pulled from the App Store in July 2009. Apple also refused to accept Google's own first-party Google Voice software, a situation that prompted an investigation from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

In a letter to the FCC, Apple claimed it was reviewing the Google Voice application, but had not outright rejected it. Over a year passed, however, with no word on its official acceptance or rejection.

Instead, Google opted to release a Web-based application for Google Voice, which allows users to access the service from the Mobile Safari browser on the iPhone. Unlike the App Store, where Apple controls what content is available, basic Web content is not filtered or restricted.

Google also wrote its own letter to the FCC, in which it alleged that Apple outright rejected the Google Voice software. It said officials with Apple would not allow the application into the App Store because it duplicated the dialer functionality built in to the iPhone.