Google Adds 5 New Protections on Google Messages to Help Keep You Safe

The latest news and insights from Google on security and safety on the Internet from October 2024

Primary Category: Industry News

Authors:
•  SCARS Editorial Team – Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
•  Google Blog

About This Article

Google’s October 2024 update to Google Messages introduces five new security features aimed at enhancing user safety. These protections include advanced scam detection for package delivery and job-related scams, intelligent warnings about potentially dangerous links, and controls to block messages from unknown international senders.

Additionally, users will benefit from sensitive content warnings, which blur images containing nudity, and a new contact verification feature to prevent impersonation. These updates aim to make messaging more secure, particularly as cyber threats continue to evolve, providing a layered defense against phishing, fraud, and privacy breaches. However, staying vigilant and educating users remains crucial, as no solution is completely foolproof.

Google Adds 5 New Protections on Google Messages to Help Keep You Safe – 2024

Posted on October 22, 2024 by Jan Jedrzejowicz, Director of Product, Android and Business Communications; Alberto Pastor Nieto, Sr. Product Manager Google Messages and RCS Spam and Abuse; Stephan Somogyi, Product Lead, User Protection; Branden Archer, Software Engineer

Every day, over a billion people use Google Messages to communicate. That’s why we’ve made security a top priority, building in powerful on-device, AI-powered filters and advanced security that protects users from 2 billion suspicious messages a month. With end-to-end encrypted RCS conversations, you can communicate privately with other Google Messages RCS users. And we’re not stopping there. We’re committed to constantly developing new controls and features to make your conversations on Google Messages even more secure and private.

As part of cybersecurity awareness month, we’re sharing five new protections to help keep you safe while using Google Messages on Android:

Enhanced detection protects you from package delivery and job scams. Google Messages is adding new protections against scam texts that may seem harmless at first but can eventually lead to fraud. For Google Messages beta users, we’re rolling out enhanced scam detection, with improved analysis of scammy texts, starting with a focus on package delivery and job-seeking messages. When Google Messages suspects a potential scam text, it will automatically move the message into your spam folder or warn you. Google Messages uses on-device machine learning models to classify these scams, so your conversations stay private and the content is never sent to Google unless you report spam. We’re rolling this enhancement out now to Google Messages beta users who have spam protection enabled.

Intelligent warnings alert you about potentially dangerous links. In the past year, we’ve been piloting more protections for Google Messages users when they receive text messages with potentially dangerous links. In India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, Google Messages warns users when they get a link from unknown senders and blocks messages with links from suspicious senders. We’re in the process of expanding this feature globally later this year.

Controls to turn off messages from unknown international senders. In some cases, scam text messages come from international numbers. Soon, you will be able to automatically hide messages from international senders who are not existing contacts so you don’t have to interact with them. If enabled, messages from international non-contacts will automatically be moved to the “Spam & blocked” folder. This feature will roll out first as a pilot in Singapore later this year before we look at expanding to more countries.

Sensitive Content Warnings give you control overseeing and sending images that may contain nudity. At Google, we aim to provide users with a variety of ways to protect themselves against unwanted content, while keeping them in control of their data. This is why we’re introducing Sensitive Content

Warnings for Google Messages.

Sensitive Content Warnings is an optional feature that blurs images that may contain nudity before viewing, and then prompts with a “speed bump” that contains help-finding resources and options, including to view the content. When the feature is enabled, and an image that may contain nudity is about to be sent or forwarded, it also provides a speed bump to remind users of the risks of sending nude imagery and preventing accidental shares.

All of this happens on-device to protect your privacy and keep end-to-end encrypted message content private to only sender and recipient. Sensitive Content Warnings doesn’t allow Google access to the contents of your images, nor does Google know that nudity may have been detected. This feature is opt-in for adults, managed via Android Settings, and is opt-out for users under 18 years of age. Sensitive Content Warnings will be rolling out to Android 9+ devices including Android Go devices with Google Messages in the coming months.

More confirmation about who you’re messaging. To help you avoid sophisticated messaging threats where an attacker tries to impersonate one of your contacts, we’re working to add a contact verifying feature to Android. This new feature will allow you to verify your contacts’ public keys so you can confirm you’re communicating with the person you intend to message. We’re creating a unified system for public key verification across different apps, which you can verify through QR code scanning or number comparison. This feature will be launching next year for Android 9+ devices, with support for messaging apps including Google Messages.

These are just some of the new and upcoming features that you can use to better protect yourself when sending and receiving messages. Download Google Messages from the Google Play Store to enjoy these protections and controls and learn more about Google Messages here.

Notes

• End-to-end encryption is currently available between Google Messages users. Availability of RCS varies by region and carrier. ↩
• Availability of features may vary by market and device. Sign up for beta testing and a data plan may be required. ↩
• Requires 2 GB of RAM.

SCARS Institute Analysis

Google just introduced five new security protections in Google Messages, designed to help users avoid scams and ensure safer communications.

These include enhanced scam detection for package delivery and job scams, intelligent warnings about dangerous links, controls for messages from international senders, sensitive content warnings, and a contact verification feature to ensure you’re communicating with the intended person.

For consumers, these new features enhance security and privacy, especially in the growing landscape of cyber threats. Enhanced scam detection using on-device AI will help prevent scam messages from reaching users, while intelligent link warnings will offer an additional layer of protection from phishing attempts. The control to block messages from unknown international numbers will be particularly useful in combating cross-border scams, which have become a growing threat in recent years.

For scam prevention, these changes can be beneficial in curbing certain types of scams, such as package delivery fraud and romance or investment scams, where scammers often impersonate legitimate contacts or businesses. By making it harder for scammers to reach victims, these measures could reduce the success rate of many common scams. However, scammers may evolve their tactics, so it’s essential for consumers to remain vigilant. While these protections offer valuable defenses, no solution is foolproof, and educating users on recognizing scams is still critical.

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