Google has tonight presented one Android Drop with new features in June. As opposed to one Pixel Drop these features are intended for the entire Android ecosystem. We’re starting with a new protection against spoofed calls. The examples show the warning “this might not be mom”, which could have been the tagline of an artistic horror film.
The protection is meant to be a wall against the new threats of the AI era. Google just gives one’s mother calling as an example. The caller says “mom”, you answer and it sounds like your mom, but it’s not your mom but a scammer who uses AI tools to try to scam you out of money.
According to Google, Android is the first in the industry to protect against this type of threat. However, for it to work it needs both the parties use Google’s phone app, which is a big crux. Namely, Google has implemented an end-to-end encrypted digital handshake between the devices: the call is verified.
If someone has spoofed one of your contacts’ numbers, the handshake is missing and the system can thus warn you. The feature will ship globally this June for all devices running Android 12 or later. Google encourages everyone to install the phone app if it is not already the default on the device.
The other news is that more models will have access to Airdrop via Quick Share. A complete list is available on this pagewhich includes 16 Galaxy phones, 11 Pixels, as well as phones from Oneplus, Oppo, Vivo, Honor and Motorola.
Those who are interested in clothing can use Circle to Search to find an entire outfit. If you call a person, the function must be able to search for every single item of clothing and accessory the person is wearing. Google also mentions that the digital wardrobe announced last spring will be released next week, but only in India, Brazil and the US.
Children will have access to the Google app Personal Safety and, among other things, be able to enter emergency contacts and any medical information. Children and young people will also be able to activate the detection of car accidents which will automatically call emergency numbers and SMS the emergency contacts.
Play Books have gotten some love. If you resume a book, Play Books can recap what’s happened so far – much like when comics show a recap of the previous episode at the start of new episodes. Users should also be able to mark passages and ask questions about themes, context or characters. The feature is only available in English initially. The latest news is that the emoji kitchen in Gboard – which creates new emojis by combining existing ones – got even more combinations.
