Google Messages adding ‘enhanced’ spam protection, ‘Sensitive Content Warnings’ for nudity

The latest round of new features for Google Messages is focused on safety, like “Sensitive Content Warnings” for images that contain nudity. Existing measures protect Android users from 2 billion suspicious messages per month.

Google Messages is adding “enhanced scam detection” that protects “against scam texts that may seem harmless at first but can eventually lead to fraud.” This improved analysis uses an on-device machine learning model to “automatically move the message into your spam folder or warn you.”

Google is starting with “package delivery and job seeking messages” that fit this pattern if you have the existing spam protection setting enabled. This is beginning to roll out for users enrolled in the Messages beta program.

To combat “sophisticated messaging threats” that try to impersonate one of your contacts, Google is building a “unified system for public key verification across different [messaging] apps.” The verification process will occur via QR code scanning or number comparison. 

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.

Google plans to launch this capability “next year for Android 9+ devices.” 

Android’s default SMS/RCS client will warn “warns users when they get a link from unknown senders” and “block messages with links from suspicious senders.” This is rolling out “globally later this year” after Google piloted potentially dangerous link warnings in India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Google will also “automatically hide messages from international senders [in the Spam & blocked folder] who are not existing contacts.” This will be piloted in Singapore later this year. 

Finally, Google Messages is adding on-device “Sensitive Content Warnings” that identify and blur nudity in received images. On the other side, before someone sends or forwards content that contains nudity, Google Messages will present a “speed bump to remind users of the risks of sending nude imagery and preventing accidental shares.”

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 is an opt-in feature for adults that will be “managed via Android Settings,” while it’s “opt-out for users under 18 years of age.” Sensitive Content Warnings are rolling out over the coming months to “Android 9+ devices including Android Go.”