Google has rolled out two new features for SMS service on Android phones that are aimed at securing conversations with verified SMS and a real-time spam detection feature.
In addition to promotional offers, SMS are also used to send one-time passwords (OTP) to users but with the growth in phishing incidents, the same SMS can also be a gateway for bad actors to pretend to be a business and ask for personal information or send users a malicious link.
To counter this threat, Google is rolling out Verified SMS feature in nine countries including USA, India, Mexico, Brazil, the U.K., France, Philippines, Spain and Canada. The feature will be available in more countries soon.
Verified SMS will confirm the identity of the business that texts users. Verified messages will carry the business’ name, logo and verification badge in the message thread.
“1-800-Flowers, Banco Bradesco, Kayak, Payback, and SoFi are among the first brands to send messages with Verified SMS. Google Pay India and verification codes from Google will also be enrolled in Verified SMS. And more businesses are signing up to use Verified SMS every day,” Google announced.
In addition, Google has also rolled out a real-time spam protection feature that’ll warn users about suspected spam messages. Users can also contribute to the spam messaging feature by reporting them and blocking the conversation to avoid future messages from the same number.
The feature is already available in a number of countries and is now being rolled out in USA.
“With Spam protection for Messages, we warn you of suspected spam and unsafe websites we’ve detected. If you see a suspected spam warning in Messages you can help us improve our spam models by letting us know if it’s spam or not.”
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