Google Messages knows when someone impersonates your friends Hallie Frederick | usagoldmines.com

Google Messages is without doubt one of the hottest messaging apps on Android, because it’s not solely preinstalled on most gadgets because the default choice however can also be the one app that helps RCS messaging with iPhone customers. As a result of it’s so widespread, it’s a primary goal for hackers, scammers, and spammers trying to steal your private information, your cash, or each. To higher defend you from these threats, Google is asserting 5 new safety features that may hold you protected whereas utilizing Google Messages on Android. These new options increase the app’s current, built-in spam safety function to guard you from new threats which have not too long ago grown in recognition.

First, Google Messages is rolling out enhanced detection of package deal supply and job scams. Texts about package deal supply alerts and job in search of inquiries may appear innocent at first, however they’re typically from spammers who’re making an attempt to get private data from you to allow them to defraud you. Beginning right this moment, an enhanced, on-device rip-off detection algorithm that detects these sorts of texts is rolling out to Google Messages beta customers who’ve spam safety enabled in settings. When the app detects a possible rip-off textual content, it’ll mechanically transfer it to your spam folder or warn you about it.

Subsequent, Google Messages will supply clever warnings about doubtlessly harmful hyperlinks. The app will warn you if you get a hyperlink from an unknown sender in addition to block messages with hyperlinks from suspicious senders. As a part of a pilot program, Google made this function out there to customers in India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore already, however the firm says it’s within the strategy of increasing it globally later this 12 months.

To guard you from rip-off texts originating from worldwide numbers, Google Messages will allow you to mechanically disguise messages from worldwide senders who aren’t in your contacts checklist. For those who allow this function, then these messages shall be mechanically moved to the “Spam & blocked” folder. We beforehand noticed proof of this function in an APK teardown final month, so it’s good to see we didn’t have to attend lengthy for Google to announce it. Nevertheless, the function will solely roll out as a part of a pilot program in Singapore later this 12 months, after which Google will “have a look at increasing [it] to extra international locations.”

Delicate Content material Warnings is one other new Google Messages function that Google is asserting right this moment. It’s a function that offers you extra management over seeing and sending pictures that will include nudity. Delicate Content material Warning blurs pictures that will include nudity earlier than viewing them, and it then prompts you with a “velocity bump” that comprises “help-finding assets and choices, together with to view the content material.” When it’s enabled and also you attempt to ship or ahead a picture that will include nudity, Google Messages may even present a “velocity bump” that reminds you of the dangers of sending nude imagery.

Google says Delicate Content material Warning runs fully on-device and doesn’t break end-to-end encryption in RCS chats. It’s optionally available for adults however is opt-out via Android Settings for customers who’re beneath 18. It’ll be rolling out to gadgets working Android 9 or later, together with to gadgets working Android Go Version with 2GB of RAM or extra, within the coming months.

Lastly, Google has introduced a brand new contact verifying function that’ll make it tougher for attackers to impersonate certainly one of your contacts. This function will allow you to confirm your contacts’ public keys so you possibly can affirm you’re speaking with the correct individual. The corporate says it’s making a “unified system for public key verification throughout completely different apps” which you can confirm via QR code scanning or quantity comparability. This function is launching subsequent 12 months for gadgets working Android 9 or later with assist for messaging apps like Google Messages.

Google’s new contact verifying function sounds much like the Contact Key Verification function Apple added in iOS 17.2. It additionally sounds much like the Contact Keys feature we noticed just a few months in the past in a teardown of Google Contacts, however in our teardown, we thought it will require new APIs launched in Android 15. If Google discovered a strategy to backport this function, that might be nice information!

Though Google introduced these options right this moment as a part of cybersecurity consciousness month, most of them aren’t out there proper now. Whereas the improved detection of package deal supply and job scams function is rolling out now, the remainder of the brand new options are both solely rolling out in choose international locations or are slated to reach within the coming months.

Hopefully Google rolls these new options out to everybody quickly, as a result of based on the corporate itself, over a billion individuals use Google Messages to speak day by day. Google says that its “highly effective on-device, AI-powered filters and superior safety” already protects customers from 2 billion suspicious messages a month, however preventing spam is a unending cat-and-mouse recreation that requires fixed vigilance. If that wasn’t the case, then not one of the options that Google introduced right this moment can be wanted, however they’re vital and it’s solely possible that extra protections will must be added down the road to deal with new, rising threats.