Android is using AI to suss out scammers in Google Messages

Android is introducing new scam defense features that aim to make it easier for users to evade mobile fraud, including bolstered protection in Google Messages and additional safeguarding tools. Building on the Scam Detection feature in Google Messages, a new “enhanced protection” setting will be rolling out in the coming weeks that taps into cloud-based Gemini AI models to quickly evaluate a potential scammer’s intentions in conversations with an unrecognized sender.

“Scammers often disguise their true motives behind slow-burn conversations,” Google said in its update announcement. “This secure cloud analysis augments and extends our existing on-device detection, allowing us to identify novel and sophisticated attacks, actively uncovering and stopping abusers who try to hide their tracks.”

User data is encrypted during this AI analysis and “processed in a secure dedicated space” that Google (and anyone else besides the user) can’t access. The enhanced protection mode will be opt-in, and also uses on-device Gemini Nano AI to inspect real-time web signals in unfamiliar URLs sent to the user before they’re opened to determine if the links are malicious.

Additional security features announced today include blocking apps from enabling call forwarding, and notifying the user when someone attempts to do so, along with automatically concealing sensitive information while screen-sharing in Chrome and Android WebView. The scam detection feature for chat notifications Google introduced on Pixel phones last year is also expanding to devices from Honor, Motorola, Oppo, OnePlus, Realme, Tecno, Vivo, Xiaomi, and more. Google says it plans to bring it to “hundreds of millions of additional users later this year.”