Google announced a range of new security features for its messaging app and service Google Messages.
Google says that the service is used by more than 1 billion users per day and that it filters out 2 billion suspicious messages each month already.
Good to know: the improvements roll out over time and some are currently available for Beta users in select markets. Others will be launching later this year or next year.
Here is what is getting improved:
- Better protections against scam messages, starting with package delivery and job scams.
- Improved protections against potentially dangerous links.
- Option to turn off messages from unknown international phone numbers.
- Option to turn on Sensitive Content Warning to blur images that may contain nudity.
- Verification option to confirm the recipient or sender of messages. (next year).
Some of these may require additional explanations.
Google Messages gets improved message and link scanning protections. The first “will automatically move the message into your spam folder” or display a warning. Google says that it is using on-device algorithms to identify scams, which means that the information never leaves the device by default.
Issue: False positives may move legitimate messages into the spam folder. If you are waiting for such a message, but have not received it, you may want to check the spam to make sure it was not improperly classified as a scam by Google.
For links, Google is using two classifications.
- Links from unknown senders display a warning.
- Links from suspicious senders blocked automatically.
Controls to turn off messages from unknown senders sounds like a good idea. It is, for most users. It may be problematic if you receive messages regularly from users from other countries.
Issue: If you travel a lot, you may receive messages regularly. If you enable this feature, you may want to check the “Spam & blocked” folder, as they are moved there automatically when the feature is enabled.
Closing Words
Most users will benefit from the new features and options. While it may take months or even longer for them to roll out to all Android users who use Google Messages, they will arrive eventually.
For some users, these protective features may introduce issues, as some legitimate messages or message attempts will be moved to spam or blocked outright.
Now you: what is your take on the new functionality? Do you use Google Messages at all, or do you prefer a different kind of messaging system? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
I tend to use google apps on the phone simply because as it’s an android, Google is not going to gain any extra personal data from an app because they are already getting it all. Why give it to someone else too?
However, their apps can be extremly annoying. Especially irritating is how they now popup little windows trying to get you to turn on more features (spyware) that covers the button you actually need to press. I got rid of google photos because of that.
I have removed or disabled several google apps but I am still using the messaging app. The one feature I like is messages for web. I can use it without signing my entire browser into google or ‘linking’ my phone. After the BS they pulled hiding the “scan qr code” to trick people into signing in, they did change it back so it’s easy to find again.
I don’t use Google Messages. Instead I downloaded SMS Messenger from F-Droid which is more than adequate for my needs.
Same goes for the Google phone app. Instead of that I use another F-Droid app called Fossify. No ads in either of them. Needless to say, Google Chrome has been consigned to history and replaced with Firefox on which I’ve installed uBlock Origin and a couple of others.
@Martin
Off-Topic: The Ghacks site is malfunctioning again. The same as before, putting user comments under the wrong stories.
The 1st two comments I see at the link below are mine but the second one is from an earlier post.
https://www.ghacks.net/2024/10/23/windows-11-updates-install-faster-and-microsoft-has-the-numbers-to-back-it-up/
Tachy, thanks for letting me know. Do you still remember the post?
@Martin
This one is in the right place
““““““““““““““““““““`
Tachy said on October 24, 2024 at 2:15 am
Reply
I don’t feel that breaking my computer faster should be considered an improvement.
I would prefer M.$ focused it’s time and money on improving the quality of it’s updates not the speed of them.
““““““““““““““““““““`
This one is duplicated from another thread where it still is, at the bottom. The original date was October 18, 2024 at 4:41 pm
“https://www.ghacks.net/2024/10/18/microsoft-launches-edge-130-with-lots-of-security-patches-and-feature-changes/”
Tachy said on October 24, 2024 at 1:50 am
Reply
I use it, among others, and it if you value your privacy at all not paying very close attention to it is ill advised.
Redesigning the settings page was not done to make things easier to find, in fact quite the opposite. They continue to bury the things they don’t want you disabling deeper and deeper.
It has it’s purpose for me and it’s good for that even though it’s a constant battle to keep the riegns on it.
That long arse list of CVE’s was a little alarming though. Many of which translate to “you get can get hacked just from viewing a webpage”.