Google Phone’s AI-powered scam detection looks nearly ready to go (APK teardown)

Are you sold yet on the potential of AI? Smartphone features powered by AI feel like the only thing manufacturers are talking about anymore, but how many of those are actually useful tools you’re interested in, and how many seem more like fancy tech demos? Even if you’re still waiting for that killer app, we’ve got reason to be optimistic, and have heard about a few compelling projects in the works, like Google using Gemini Nano to keep you safe from scammers on voice calls. As we wait to get full details from Google on how that will arrive, we’re already seeing some early evidence of it in the Phone app.

Opening up the new Google Phone 138 beta release, we spot a number of text strings that sound related to this incoming functionality:

The first takeaway there is the distinction being drawn between scams and spam; right now, the app’s formal focus is only on spam (though we could see scams counting as “unwanted calls” in general). But going forward, Google Phone is preparing to be explicit about the difference.

We also notice that this seems to describe a system for manually reporting calls. The way Google talked about it back at I/O, it sounded like Gemini would be making the decision about characterizing the call as legitimate or not, so it’s interesting to consider that we may also be able to flag calls that Google misses.

“Sharpie,” if you haven’t surmised just yet, is Google’s internal codename for this system. All these functions and variables present in the app code shine further light on how Phone’s AI scam detection will work and arrive. The first two you see here appear to correspond with the user interaction options Google presented back when announcing the feature in May:

Even though all the processing for scam detection will take place on your phone, limiting the privacy implications of using it, Google’s been clear that it’s not forcing this on anyone, and the system will be opt-in when it arrives. That has us raising our eyebrows just the slightest bit at what appears to be a flag for automatically using AI scam detection — perhaps it’s intended for managed devices, or for use with Family Link?

While we still have plenty of questions about how Phone’s scam detection will arrive, and exactly how it will operate once it does, we’re hugely excited about the idea of it getting here. Scam calls are a serious problem affecting some of society’s most vulnerable members, and it’s not always easy to teach people how to recognize when they’re being taken advantage of. If we can offload some of that burden onto AI-powered systems, there’s the real potential to help protect a lot of people.

Hopefully the progress we’ve spotted indicates that Google is well on its way to getting this system running. Will it debut with the Pixel 9 in just a few more weeks? We’ll know soon!