Google is rolling out new scam protection to Pixel phones this month, and it’s landing in a lot more places than before. Starting with this month’s update, Pixel users in the UK, Australia, Canada, Singapore, India, Germany, Mexico, Japan, and France will start getting alerts when a text message from an app other than their regular texting app looks like a scam.
If you own a Pixel and use apps like WhatsApp or other chat apps outside your default messaging app, this matters. Scam texts don’t just show up in your regular inbox anymore. Google’s alerts are built to catch the sketchy ones no matter which app they land in, so you get a warning before you tap on something you shouldn’t.
Scam alerts spread to more apps and more countries
Google has been building out this kind of protection for a while, most recently with Fake Call Detection for spoofed calls earlier this year. This update takes a similar approach for text messages, and stretches it well past Google’s own apps for the first time in these nine countries.
Pixel owners in the US get a slightly different version. Instead of catching scam texts across every app, the alerts show up specifically through Gboard, Google’s keyboard app, when it’s active in a third-party chat app.
Either way, the alert works the same way it always has. If a message looks like a scam, you’ll get a notification warning you before you respond. It’s not a guarantee every scam gets caught, but it’s one more layer between you and a message trying to trick you out of money or personal information.
What else is in this month’s update
Pixel owners are also getting a few other changes worth knowing about. VIP contacts on your home screen widget now let you call or text your closest people with a single tap, and the widget pulls together your recent conversations across Google Messages, your Dialer, and WhatsApp in one place.
There’s also a lighter update for fans of the wizarding world. New Harry Potter Audiobook theme packs are landing on Pixel to tie into Audible’s new full-cast audio editions.
On the Pixel Watch side, Pixel Watch 3 and newer models are getting an expanded version of the one-handed pinch gesture Google introduced last year, now letting you scroll through your notification tray with just a pinch. Pixel Watch 4 and newer are also getting improvements to the raise-to-talk gesture that wakes up Gemini.
If you own a Pixel or Pixel Watch, these updates should be rolling out to your device as part of this month’s Pixel Drop.