Staying One Step Ahead: Strengthening Android’s Lead in Scam Protection

We’ve shared how Android’s proactive, multi-layered scam defenses utilize Google AI to protect users around the world from over 10 billion suspected malicious calls and messages every month1. While that scale is significant, the true impact of these protections is best understood through the stories of the individuals they help keep safe every day. This includes people like Majik B., an IT professional in Sunnyvale, California.

Despite his technical background, Majik recently found himself on a call that felt dangerously legitimate. While using his Pixel, he received a call that appeared to be from his bank. The number looked correct, the caller knew his name and his address, and the story about a "suspicious charge" made perfect sense. "I’m usually pretty careful about this stuff," Majik recalled, "but I stayed on the line longer than I normally would. Even knowing how these scams work, it was convincing in the moment."

The turning point came when his phone displayed a Scam Detection warning during the call, which provided a critical moment to pause and reflect. Majik hung up, checked his bank app directly, and confirmed there was no fraudulent charge. For Majik, Scam Detection was the intervention he needed: “The warning is what made me pause and avoid a bad situation”.

While stories like Majik’s show how our existing protections provide a robust shield against scams, our work isn't done. As scammers evolve their tactics and create more convincing and personalized threats, we’re using the best of Google AI to stay one step ahead.

A recent evaluation by Counterpoint Research found that Android smartphones provide the most comprehensive AI-powered protections of any mobile platform. We are committed to building on this foundation by expanding our AI-powered protections to more users and devices, while rolling out new features that utilize on-device AI to defend against increasingly sophisticated threats.

Expanding Scam Detection for Calls to Samsung Devices

To help protect you during phone calls, Scam Detection alerts you if a caller uses speech patterns commonly associated with fraud. We are bringing these protections to more of our users through new regional expansion and availability on new devices. Scam Detection for phone calls on Google Pixel devices is available in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and Spain.

Scam Detection is already helping millions of users to stay safe from scammers, and we are expanding this feature to more manufacturers, starting with the Samsung Galaxy S26 series in the U.S. We are continuing to work with our partners to bring these industry-leading protections to even more users.

Powered by Gemini’s on-device model, Scam Detection provides intelligent protection against scam calls while ensuring that the processing stays on your device. This keeps your conversations private while delivering warnings in real-time. To preserve your privacy, the phone conversation processed by Scam Detection is neither stored on your device, nor shared outside of the device. To ensure you stay in total control of your experience, Scam Detection is turned off by default. When enabled, the feature only applies to calls identified as potential scams and is never used in calls with your contacts. You can easily manage these preferences in your phone settings whenever you choose.

Enhanced Protection Against Messaging Scams

We want everyone to feel secure when they open their messages, no matter where they are or what language they speak. To make this possible, we’ve now expanded Scam Detection for Google Messages to more than 20 countries. This includes support for several languages including English, Arabic, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Beyond reaching more people, we are also making our protections more intelligent. We are enhancing how Google Messages identifies fraudulent texts by utilizing our Gemini on-device model on the latest Android flagship devices in the US, Canada, and the UK. The added power of Gemini’s on-device model allows for a much more nuanced analysis of complex conversational threats.

For example, it can better detect the subtle conversational patterns used in job offer scams or sophisticated romance baiting scams (also known as “pig butchering”), a deceptive tactic where a scammer builds a long-term "relationship" with a potential victim to gain their trust, before tricking them into a fraudulent investment. Because these methods rely on gradual manipulation and don’t present typical warning signs, they need more advanced capabilities to catch them at scale. These advanced protections are now rolling out on Google Pixel 10 series and other select devices, and will be available on the Samsung Galaxy S26 series.

Using the Best of Google AI to Set the Standard in Mobile Scam Protection

Android continues to set the standard in mobile scam protections by leveraging advanced AI to identify and intercept threats as they happen. As scammer’s strategies shift, we remain committed to developing equally adaptive and intelligent defenses. Our goal is to provide you with peace of mind so you can continue to connect and communicate with confidence, knowing our multi-layered defenses are there to help protect your financial and personal data against mobile scams.

Disclaimers

1: This total comprises all instances where a message or call was proactively blocked or where a user was alerted to potential spam or scam activity.