Google Phone App for Android Gets Built-In Caller ID and Spam Protection

Google has rolled out "caller ID and spam protection" on its Phone app with which the app itself would be able to filter out calls that it detects to be spam, eliminating all notifications and alerts for those calls as well.

"You'll still see filtered calls in your call history and be able to check any voicemail you receive," the search engine giant wrote in a support post on Friday.

The new features would work on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above. To use "caller ID and spam protection", the user's phone may need to send information about their calls to Google. Caller ID and spam protection is on by default, but users can choose to turn it off. The option to turn it off are be available on the settings area of the Phone app.

Photo Credit: The Verge/ Google

To disable the feature, open the Phone app, tap the three-dot symbol, and then open Settings > Caller ID & spam > Off. Google adds that to stop spam calls from ringing, users should turn on Filter suspected spam calls. Once this is done, users won't get missed call or voicemail notifications, but they'll still see filtered calls in your call history and be able to check any voicemail they receive.

Users can also mark calls as spam. To do this, users will need to open the Phone app and go to Recents. Here, they will need to tap the call they want to report as spam, and then tap Block / report spam. Users will then be asked if they want to block the number. If the option is showing up, tap Report call as spam, and then tap Block.