New intelligent security measures on Android by Google for enhanced user safety

At Google, ensuring user safety is our top priority. Our commitment to making technology useful for all includes developing features that not only protect users but also prioritize their privacy. Whether it’s the robust defenses of Gmail against spam, phishing, and malware, or the advanced security of Google Messages safeguarding users from billions of suspicious messages every month, we continuously innovate and expand protective capabilities to ensure your safety.

We are proud to announce two new real-time protection features designed to heighten your security while respecting your privacy: Phone by Google’s Scam Detection to shield against scams and fraud, and Google Play Protect for live threat detection with immediate alerts to guard against malware and dangerous applications.

These cutting-edge security elements are initially available on Pixel devices, and will soon extend to a broader range of Android smartphones.

Enhanced AI-Powered Defense Mechanisms against Scams

Scammers defraud individuals of over $1 trillion annually, with phone calls being their preferred method. The evolution of scam calls into increasingly sophisticated, damaging, and harder-to-detect schemes is concerning. Hence, we leverage Google’s top-notch AI technology to preemptively identify and foil scams through Scam Detection.

Privacy-Centric Real-Time Defense Mechanisms.

• On-the-Spot Protection, Embedded in Your Device: Scam Detection employs potent on-device AI to instantly alert you of potential scam calls by identifying conversation patterns commonly linked to scams. For instance, if a caller purports to represent your bank and urges urgent fund transfers due to an alleged account breach, Scam Detection assesses the call to ascertain if it’s likely spam and, if so, issues an audio and haptic alert along with a visual warning signaling a possible scam.
• Inherently Private, Putting You in Charge: We’ve architected Scam Detection to safeguard your privacy while ensuring you retain control over your data. By default, Scam Detection remains inactive, allowing you the discretion to activate it for future calls. At any point, you can deactivate it for all calls in the Phone app settings or during a specific call. The AI detection model and processing occur entirely on the device, preserving the privacy of conversation audio or transcripts – none of which are stored on the device, transmitted to Google servers or elsewhere, or retrievable post-call.
• Advanced AI Shielding, Now Extending to Additional Pixel Phones: Leveraging Gemini Nano, our sophisticated on-device AI model powers Scam Detection on Pixel 9 series devices. Ensuring broader access to robust AI capabilities, this AI-driven protection is now accessible to Pixel 6+ users through other powerful Google on-device machine learning models.

We are currently rolling out Scam Detection to English-speaking users in the U.S. participating in the Phone by Google public beta program with a Pixel 6 or newer device.

To share your feedback on the experience, kindly navigate to the Phone by Google App -> Menu -> Help & Feedback -> Send Feedback. We eagerly anticipate gleaning insights from this beta phase and your input, and will provide further updates on Scam Detection in the ensuing months.

Immediate Alerts for Shielding Against Malicious Apps

Google Play Protect relentlessly shields you in real-time from malware and unsafe applications. By scrutinizing behavioral cues linked to sensitive permissions and interactions with other apps and services, Play Protect identifies potential threats promptly.

With live threat detection, should a harmful app be detected, you will promptly receive an alert, empowering you to take swift action to fortify your device. By analyzing the actual behavior patterns of apps, live threat detection can now detect malicious apps that employ sophisticated tactics to camouflage their actions or remain dormant before engaging in suspicious behavior.

At initiation, the focus of live threat detection will be on stalkerware – code that may gather personal or sensitive data for surveillance purposes without user consent, with future plans to expand detection to other forms of harmful applications. All these protective measures are executed on your device in a data-respectful manner through Private Compute Core, allowing us to safeguard users without collecting their data.

Live threat detection with immediate alerts in Google Play Protect is currently functional on Pixel 6+ devices and will be extended to more smartphone brands in the forthcoming months.