Google Voice is perhaps one of the more peculiar offerings from the firm. It’s been there for a long time and has a solid fanbase, yet it still seems like it might be eliminated at any time at Google’s whim, despite its longevity and popularity. This is due in large part to the fact that Google’s Voice app always seems like an afterthought, and although it does get some new features every so often, it’s really frustrating to see Google’s Phone app continue to receive updates that include functionality that Voice has long lacked. Thankfully, Google is playing catch-up by including spam call alerts into Voice.

It’s understandable if you have a hard time thinking back to a time when the Phone app didn’t flag potential spam calls; the feature has been available since the app’s inception in the middle of 2016, far before the release of the first Pixel phones. Google should be ashamed that it has taken so long to implement this feature in Google Voice, but at this point we’ll take what we can get.

The previous system has been quite successful, and Google claims it is utilising the same methods for Voice that it has been using for Phone spam call detection. If for some reason that doesn’t work, users may always mark a number as safe and Voice will keep that information on file.

Even if you don’t have the “filter spam” option on in Voice settings, Google will still show “Suspected spam caller” when a call comes in from an unknown number. We’ve been getting spam messages in our Voice call records dating back a number of weeks, even though availability doesn’t officially begin until today and won’t affect all customers until mid-January.