Google Voice Gets a Spam Filter for Voice Calls, Texts

Google is taking some of its expertise from the email space and putting it to good use in Google Voice. Users will now be able to benefit from the spam-busting technologies that they've enjoyed in Gmail for years in Voice as well.

Granted, the two solutions are not exactly the same thing, but they do share similarities. Voice users will be able to avoid telemarketers, annoying text message ads and everything else that uselessly takes up their time. "If, like me, you have more interesting ways to spend your time than talking to telemarketers, the 'Report Spam' button in Google Voice is probably your best friend," Alexander Rybak, Software Engineering Intern at Google, wrote.

Already, users are able to block individual numbers, to make sure they aren't bothered by the same unwanted calls again.

Google Voice users have also been able to report everything they didn't like as spam. But that didn't really provide any future benefits, until now.

"But wouldn't it be great if the filtering could happen automatically, before unwanted calls even reach your phone, the same way Gmail filters spam before it gets to your inbox?," he announced.

"Thanks to the help of the thousands of Google Voice users who mark calls as spam everyday—and our own spam identification tools—it is now possible to automatically redirect calls, texts, and voicemails from any of the numbers in our database directly into your spam folder," he added.

If you want to clean up your phone calls, you can enable the feature, dubbed Global SPAM, in the Calls tab of Google Voice. All messages Google deems as spam end up in your Spam folder.

If you think you should have received a message and you didn't, or if you don't completely trust Google's filters, you can check the Spam folder to time to time, to make sure you're not missing out on anything.

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