The HTC G2 smartphone hasn’t hit the streets yet, but a leaked copy of the phone’s firmware has. And among other things, the Android phone appears to have a new version of the Google Voice application, which doesn’t just let you make and receive calls and text messages by opening the app — you can also access some features through a new Home Screen widget.
The new Google Voice Settings widget has four buttons. You can use it to open the Google Voice app, start composing a text message, toggle “do not disturb” mode, or toggle whether Google Voice should be used only for international calls.
There’s also a Google Voice Inbox widget which shows you a preview of your latest message. You can tap the text to open Google Voice and see the whole message, or hit the arrow buttons to flip through messages.
Like the new widgets, but don’t want to have to buy a new phone to get them? The folks at xda-developers have got you covered. Forum member MvP77 has extracted the installer file from the
G2 ROM, and the new Google Voice app is available for download. You’ll need to register for the forums to download the file.
The new Google Voice app actually replaces the existing app on your phone, rather than simply adding widgets. But overall, the widgets appear to be the only new features.
