When it comes to Google’s services, Google Voice is always a potential source of concern. Many of us rely on this Google product heavily, but Google often ignores it for long periods of time, leaving us to wonder if it will soon receive a major update or if it will soon be consigned to the Google product graveyard.

In its final week of the year, Google has added a much-requested new feature to Google Voice, leading many to believe that the service will continue into the new year.

The new and noteworthy function labels spam calls as such. This is a great example of Google’s sporadic efforts to show how much they care about Voice, and yes, it’s a feature that probably should have been here a long time ago. After all, this is a calling app, and it’s already 2023, and we just got spam call labelling for incoming calls.

I won’t even begin to whine! Yes, I am mildly amused, but I’m also nodding in acknowledgement of this feature of phone service that I’ve never before appreciated.

In a blog post for Workspace users, Google explained that the new feature makes use of “the same advanced artificial intelligence that identifies billions of spam calls each month across Google’s calling ecosystem.” Adore it.

The Voice app’s Settings menu includes a submenu labelled “Security” where you can change this. There’s a “Filter spam” button there in that part of the app. Strangely, the “Suspected spam caller” label won’t appear on incoming calls until you turn that option OFF. The reason for this is that when this option is activated, calls of that nature are automatically filtered out and sent to voicemail.

I am able to confirm that the option is enabled and that I am using version 2022.11.28.491470536. It’s possible that Google just made a change in the background; I haven’t received any Google Voice updates in a few weeks.