Google’s June Launch of Android Could Put an End to Calls for AI Scams.
With more and more powerful AI tools available for experimentation , and these tools becoming accessible not only to everyone but also to hackers and scammers, this means a whole new range of attacks and dangers to be wary of. In the June Android update, Google is taking direct action against AI-powered deepfake attacks.
Here’s how it works: a scammer arranges a call that looks like it’s your mom. The caller ID is spoofed, and thanks to artificial intelligence, the caller looks and sounds like your mom. Before you can even come up with an excuse not to come home for Christmas, she demands $100 to cover the costs of a plumbing emergency.
Thanks to the fake call detection feature now rolling out to the Google Phone app on devices running Android 12 and later, this call should be flagged. A message will appear on your screen informing you that your mom might not actually be your mom, and you’ll be asked to hang up. (You can then call her from your phone to see if she really wants money.)
Google states that this recognition feature works via the Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging protocol, so both you and your trusted contacts need to enable RCS in Google Messages. When someone calls you, a “silent confirmation tone” is sent in the background from their phone to yours, verifying the caller’s phone number and identifying them as one of your contacts.
If a call comes from a character created using DeepFake AI technology, there will be no signal, and the Phone app will notify you. This security feature will be enabled by default after the update, although you can disable it through the settings screen in the Google Phone app (tap the menu button in the upper left corner to find it).
This is a reminder of how realistic AI can now create audio and video, which, according to Google, leads to $2.95 billion in annual financial losses from fraudulent accounts. With this update, you’ll be a little safer.
Here’s what else will be included in the June release of Android apps.
There’s plenty more to talk about in the June Android update, though the main feature is the fake call detection feature. As is often the case, some of these features were already announced for specific phone models and are now becoming available to a wider range of users.
That’s the case with the new clothing search feature coming to Circle to Search : previously available on the Galaxy S26 and Pixel 10 devices, it’s now coming to all phones running Android 14 or later that have Circle to Search installed. Highlight an item of clothing on the screen, and you’ll get search results for all items within that clothing.
Google Photos also introduces the Wardrobe feature, announced last month and now available for devices running Android 10 or later in the US, India, and Brazil. The app will feature a new Wardrobe section with clothes selected from your photo library—you can browse these items by type, combine them, and use artificial intelligence to help you try on any combination of items.
The Personal Safety app for children under 13 will feature new safety features, including medical information, emergency contacts, real-time location sharing, and traffic collision detection. Google also confirmed that simplified data sharing between Android and iOS devices via AirDrop or QR code is becoming increasingly common.
Google Play Books has an exciting update: the Book Suggestions feature. Now you can find a “Plot Summary” option (handy if you’re returning to a book after a long break), as well as the ability to ask questions about passages, themes, context, and characters.
Finally, Emoji Kitchen , Google’s dedicated tool for creating a variety of fun emoji combinations, offers even more options—these emoji can be shared via the Gboard keyboard. Since Android 17 is also in beta, expect more features to arrive in the coming months.