Google yanked the wraps off plans to imbue Android 16, the upcoming release of the mobile operating system slated for a June release, with a slew of guardrails and protections to frustrate common phone- and text-based scams.
What strikes me as most interesting is that these protections are aimed at safeguarding users against social engineering, in which a scammer uses not hacking skills to access what they shouldn’t, but rather a manipulative set of behaviors designed to gain the confidence of the target and then trick them into handing over what they want.
protections, both new and improved
The complete list of security measures included in Android 16 can be found on Google’s May 13 blog post. The ones that jumped out the most to me were targeted phone and text scams.
“Android’s new in-call protections provide an additional layer of defense, preventing you from taking risky security actions during a call, like:
- “Granting accessibility permissions, which can give a newly downloaded malicious app access to gain control over the user’s device and steal sensitive/private data, like banking information.
- “Disabling Google Play Protect, Android’s built-in security protection, that is on by default and continuously scans for malicious app behavior, no matter the download source.
- “Sideloading an app for the first time from a web browser, messaging app or other source – which may not have been vetted for security and privacy by Google.”
These protections only kick in when you’re on a call when somebody whose number isn’t in your contacts.
Google had already introduced AI-powered “Scam Detection” in the Messages app on March 4, 2025. As it sits now, Scam Detection is “focused on analyzing and detecting package delivery and job seeking scams,” as Google puts it. The new improvements in Android 16 focus on the more conversational methods that some scammers use in social engineering attempts.
“We’ve now expanded our detections to help protect you from a wider variety of sophisticated scams, including toll road and other billing fee scams, crypto scams, financial impersonation scams, gift card and prize scams, and technical support scams,” writes Google.
This is what I want to see AI tackling. Not helping me write a bland email or eBay description. Tackling the jerks who waste our time with their admittedly sometimes clever attempts to part us with our cash, dignity, sanity, and private information.
The post Google’s Android 16 Takes Aim at Phone and Text Scams appeared first on VICE.
