Spam is one of the banes of contemporary digital life, but a new change to Google's Messages app should at least make it a bit easier to manage. Earlier this week, a Google employee revealed that Messages is getting the ability to report group spam messages, though it isn't live for us just yet.

Reporting spam in group messages is only the latest effort Google has made for Messages, as it previously rolled out general "spam protection" late last year. A spam auto-reply and SMS verification system were also spotted in teardowns earlier this year.

The new option to report spam in group messages will appear in a sub-menu inside the group message — from the conversation view, tap the three-button menu -> Group details -> Report spam. That action reports the spammer to Google and archives the thread.

In our testing, the option doesn't appear in any pre-existing group conversations in the current Beta (v5.2.051) or stable (v5.0.062) releases. There could be other requirements we aren't aware of for the option to appear. It could be that it's limited to conversations you don't initiate yourself, or it may not have rolled out at the same time as the feature announcement.

A pre-existing support document regarding spam reporting via Messages also now contains the same instructions for reporting content in group messages. If you don't have the option now, you should soon.

Source: Google