Google Voice can now alert users about suspected spam calls: Details

Google Voice is a service available to Google Account customers in the US and Google Workspace customers in Canada. Users get a phone number for calling, text messaging, and voicemail. It works on smartphones as well as computers.

The new feature was announced by Google in a Workspace blog update. “To help protect you from unwanted calls and potentially harmful scams, Google Voice shows a ‘suspected spam caller’ label on all calls that Google believes to be spam. Google makes this determination using the same advanced artificial intelligence that identifies billions of spam calls each month across Google’s calling ecosystem,” the company said.

How does the new feature work?

Google says that the new spam calls label will appear on the incoming call screen as well as in the call history. Users will have two choices here. One is they can confirm a suspected spam call, which causes future calls from that number to go directly to voicemail and call history entries to be put in the spam folder. Second option is to mark a labeled call as not spam, after which the suspected spam label is never displayed for that number again.

As per Google, the feature will have a phased rollout. It has already started rolling out from December 29. The feature is available to all Google Voice customers. Also, the suspected spam labeling will appear automatically on the screen if the Voice spam filter is off. To send a suspected spam call to voicemail automatically, navigate through Settings > Security > Filter Spam >Turn it On. When spam filtering is ON, all calls that Google identifies as spam are automatically sent to voicemail, and the call entry is put into the spam folder.