Google has announced that it is introducing a series of safety features to Messages. Enhanced fraud detection around potentially fraudulent texts. The company says the update “improves analysis of fraudulent texts.” Currently, the tool prioritizes package delivery and recruitment scams.
If Google Messages suspects a scam, it will move the message to your spam folder or issue a warning. This app uses on-device machine learning models to detect these scams. This means your conversations will remain private. This enhancement is currently rolling out to beta users who have spam protection enabled.
Google also plans to widely roll out intelligent alerts, a feature that has been in testing for some time. The tool warns users if they receive a link from an unknown sender and “automatically blocks messages containing links from suspicious senders.” The updated safety tools also include a new sensitive content warning that automatically blurs images that may contain nudity. This is an opt-in feature and everything stays on your device. It will appear in the coming months.
Finally, there are tools coming soon that can block messages from unknown international senders, cutting off the source of fraud. This will automatically hide messages from international senders who aren’t already in your contact list. The feature will be part of a pilot program in Singapore later this year and then expanded to more countries.
In addition to the tools mentioned above, Google said it is currently working on developing contact tracing capabilities for Android. This will help ward off scammers trying to impersonate your contacts. The company says this feature will be available sometime next year.
