Google is adding an opt-in “Enhanced protection” mode to Google Messages that sends some conversations with unknown senders to its cloud Gemini models for scam analysis. The company is also adding new Android defences against call-forwarding tricks and screen-sharing scams. The features don’t all arrive at once. Google gives different dates for each, and one of the headline safeguards is not expected until December.
The changes were set out in a Google blog post published on 14 October by Alberto Pastor Nieto, a senior product manager for Google Messages, and Shaifali Bhandari, an Android product manager. BleepingComputer reported on the announcement the following day.
What Enhanced protection does
Google describes Enhanced protection as “a new opt-in security setting” that “will be rolling out in the coming weeks.” Turning it on unlocks three things.
Cloud scam analysis. Scam Detection in Google Messages already runs on the device. With Enhanced protection switched on, it can also “tap into Google’s most capable cloud Gemini models” to judge the context of a conversation with an unknown sender. Google says the aim is to catch slow-burn scams, where the real motive only shows up after several messages. It says this analysis happens in Private AI Compute, where data is “encrypted and processed in a secure dedicated space”, which Google describes as inaccessible “to anyone else, including Google.” That privacy claim comes from Google, and TSN has not tested it.
Link checks with Gemini Nano. Google Messages already flags links to known malicious and phishing websites. Scammers often register brand-new domains that no blocklist has caught yet. With Enhanced protection on, the on-device Gemini Nano model uses “real-time web signals” to judge whether an unfamiliar link can be trusted before the user taps it. According to the brief’s reading of Google’s footnotes, this works on the Pixel 10 and later, the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, the Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold8, and “other select devices.”
Checkpoints for unfamiliar links. Redesigned warnings give users more time to pause before they open a link from a number that isn’t saved in their contacts. Google says this was previously limited to some countries or to devices running Android Advanced Protection.
Wider Android changes, on different timelines
Chat notification alerts. Pixel phones can already warn about suspicious messages from popular chat apps right in the notification shade. Google says it is working with Android device makers to bring this to “hundreds of millions of additional users later this year.”
Screen-share masking. Android already hides sensitive information in native apps during screen sharing. Google says it is now extending that to Chrome and Android WebView, so login fields and payment screens are blanked out during live screen-share sessions. The footnote dates this as rolling out this month to devices on Android 15 and later.
Call-forwarding protection. Some scammers try to quietly redirect incoming calls so they can intercept one-time passcodes. The blog says Android “now blocks apps from quietly enabling call forwarding in the background”, and warns the user before a manually typed MMI forwarding code takes effect. However, Google’s footnote says the feature will be available “starting early December on Pixel and other select devices.” It is not live yet.
Bank call verification and the numbers Google cites
Google says Scam Detection in Phone by Google and Google Messages now flags more than 5 million suspected scam calls and texts a month. It points to Brazil, where the Brazilian Federation of Banks (FEBRABAN) reported that bank impersonation scams rose 195.7% over 12 months. Android’s verified financial calls feature, built with Banco do Brasil, Itaú Unibanco and other banks, checks with the bank’s app whether the bank really placed a call. If it didn’t, Android hangs up. Google says that since the feature launched in June it has blocked more than 3 million spoofed calls from Banco do Brasil and Itaú Unibanco alone. It adds that Revolut customers are also covered.
Android versus iOS: whose findings?
Google’s post also says Android offers better scam protection than the iPhone. That claim rests on two sources, and Google paid for or ran both. The first is a Google-commissioned report by Leviathan Security Group, which Google says found Android “consistently outperformed iOS” on built-in tools such as call screening and fake call detection. The second is a survey of 4,500 smartphone users that Google ran with YouGov in the US, Canada and Australia. In it, 40% of respondents said they were “very” or “extremely” concerned about mobile fraud. According to Google, iPhone users in the survey were more likely than Pixel users to say they had fallen victim to a scam. Apple’s own view is not included in Google’s post.
What this means
- Enhanced protection is opt-in and arrives “in the coming weeks”. Turning it on means some messages from unknown senders get analysed in Google’s cloud, under Google’s privacy assurances for Private AI Compute.
- The rollout is staggered. Screen-share masking comes this month for Android 15 and later, the chat alerts for other phone makers come later this year, and the call-forwarding block arrives from early December.
- The Android-versus-iOS comparison comes from a report Google commissioned and a survey Google ran, not from independent testing.
Sources
- Google: New Android protections to help keep you safe from mobile scams
- BleepingComputer: Android gets AI defenses against messaging scams, fake calls
- Leviathan Security Group: October 2026 mobile platform security and fraud prevention assessment (Google-commissioned)
- Google: Private AI Compute
Related stories
- Google DeepMind and Singapore Build a Scam Detector That Runs on Your Phone
- Microsoft Disrupts Three Chinese-Language Phishing Services It Links to More Than One Billion Scam Messages
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