Google makes it easier to identify spam calls in Voice with automatic labeling

Google Voice will now label any call it believes to be spam as a "suspected spam caller" to help protect you from unwanted calls and potential scams.

For the unversed, Google Voice is a telephone service that provides users with a virtual phone number to make and receive calls, texts, and voicemails. It also offers features such as call forwarding, voicemail transcription, and call blocking.

The new "suspected spam caller" label will be visible on the incoming call screen and in the user's call history. You can choose to either:

• Verify a suspected spam call, which will cause any future calls from that number to be sent straight to voicemail and the call history entries to be placed in the spam folder
• Mark a labeled call as not spam, after which the suspected spam label will never be shown for that number again.

When the Voice spam filter setting (Settings > Security > Filter spam) is turned OFF, any calls that Google identifies as spam will be labeled as such automatically. However, if the filter is set to ON, the calls will be sent to voicemail and the entry will be placed in the spam folder.

"Google makes this determination using the same advanced artificial intelligence that identifies billions of spam calls each month across Google’s calling ecosystem," the tech giant said in a statement on Thursday.

The new feature is gradually rolling out to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains and may take up to 15 days to be fully visible. It will be available to all Google Voice customers.