Google Messages adds enhanced scam detection tools

Google just announced a spate of safety features coming to Messages. There’s enhanced scam detection centered around texts that could lead to fraud. The company says the update provides “improved analysis of scammy texts.” For now, this tool will prioritize scams involving package deliveries and job offers.

When Google Messages suspects a scam, it’ll move the message to the spam folder or issue a warning. The app uses on-device machine learning models to detect these scams, meaning that conversations will remain private. This enhancement is rolling out now to beta users who have spam protection enabled.

Google’s also set to broadly roll out intelligent warnings, a feature that’s been in the pilot stage for a while. This tool warns users when they get a link from an unknown sender and automatically “blocks messages with links from suspicious senders.” The updated safety tools also include new sensitive content warnings that automatically blurs images that may contain nudity. This is an opt-in feature and also keeps everything on the device. It’ll show up in the next few months.

Finally, there’s a forthcoming tool that’ll let people turn off messages from unknown international senders, thus cutting the scam spigot off at the source. This will automatically hide messages from international senders who aren’t already in the contacts list. This feature is entering a pilot program in Singapore later this year before expanding to more countries.

In addition to the above tools, Google says it’s currently working on a contact verifying feature for Android. This should help put the kibosh on scammers trying to impersonate one of your contacts. The company has stated that this feature will be available sometime next year.