Spam isn't just the bane of your personal email — if anything, it's even more aggressive about weaseling its way into work inboxes. While many spam messages are easy to spot immediately, bad actors still try to use clever lures, including attempts to make the recipient believe emails are from someone familiar, like a co-worker or friend. In its endless uphill battle against spam, Google has added a feature to Workspace that will help ensure we all waste a little less time trying to figure out if the messages we receive are the real deal.

Including email addresses should make these notifications safer.

In a Workspace blog post, Google detailed a straightforward solution to not getting fooled by phony notifications claiming someone has mentioned you in a comment on a Workspace document. The notices previously carried the commenter's name and what they said, but with the new feature, the commenter's email handle will also appear. Google says it hopes the additional identifying info will boost user confidence that the message is something you want to see — not spam, or some kind of phishing attempt.

The feature is available to personal account users and Google Workspace customers as well as everyone using Business and the legacy G Suite. The company says it will take just over two weeks from today to roll out to everyone.