Google is extending AI-powered scam detection across Android, adding enhanced message checks, screen-sharing safeguards, call-forwarding warnings and verified banking calls.
Google is widening its fight against mobile scams with a new set of AI-driven defences for Android users, stretching from Messages and calls to screen-sharing and banking alerts. In an Android Security blog post published on 14 October 2026, Alberto Pastor Nieto and Shaifali Bhandari said the company’s Scam Detection systems now flag more than 5 million suspected scam calls and texts each month, underscoring how quickly fraudsters have shifted to mobile messaging and voice calls.
At the centre of the update is an opt-in Enhanced protection mode for Google Messages, which Google says will begin rolling out in the coming weeks. The setting adds a cloud-based layer built on Gemini models, accessed through Private AI Compute, to assess the wider context of suspicious conversations with unknown senders and spot a scammer’s intent earlier. Google says the processing is encrypted within a dedicated secure environment, while an on-device layer uses Gemini Nano to check links against real-time web signals before a user taps. A third safeguard adds stronger warnings for links sent from numbers outside a user’s contacts, a feature now available on phones running Android 6 or later.
The company is also extending scam alerts beyond Messages. According to Google, chat notifications on devices from manufacturers including Motorola, OnePlus, Xiaomi and others will soon be able to surface suspicious-message warnings before the user even opens the app, a capability that first appeared on Pixel phones. Google said the on-device protection should reach hundreds of millions of additional users later in 2026. It is also broadening its automatic privacy guard during screen-sharing sessions so that Chrome and Android WebView hide sensitive fields such as login and payment details when a screen is being shared. The update is rolling out this month on devices running Android 15 or later.
Google is likewise tightening defences against call redirection. The platform will stop apps from silently enabling call forwarding in the background and will warn users before a manually entered forwarding code is applied. The company says scammers use that technique to intercept incoming calls and one-time passcodes. In banking, Android is expanding a verified financial calls programme that works with official banking apps to confirm in real time whether an incoming call was actually initiated by the bank. Google says the system has already blocked more than 3 million spoofed calls from Banco do Brasil and Itaú Unibanco since June, and it cites figures from Brazil’s banking federation showing a sharp rise in impersonation scams.
The announcement also leans on Google-commissioned research to argue that Android now offers stronger default scam protection than competing devices in some of the most common fraud scenarios. The company says an October evaluation by Leviathan Security Group compared the Pixel 11 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro, Galaxy S26 and Motorola Razr 2026 on built-in protections enabled by default, with Android coming out ahead on call screening, fake call detection and threat warnings. Google also cited a YouGov survey of 4,500 adults in the United States, Australia and Canada, saying concern about mobile fraud remains high and that iPhone users were more likely than Pixel owners to report falling victim to a scam. The figures help frame the rollout as both a product update and a marketing push, as Google seeks to position Android’s security tools as a broader response to a fast-moving fraud problem.
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