Phone by Google wants to fight Protect Android users from “sophisticated, AI-powered deep spoofing attacks” with “the growing threat of impersonation scams” and fake call detection.
Imagine your phone ringing. It says “Mom” on the caller ID. You answer and it sounds like him; it has the same tone, the same voice. However, the person on the other end isn’t your mother – it’s a scammer using AI tools to impersonate her and ask you to pay for a fake emergency.
- Scammers spoof a phone number, routing calls through web-based software to make it look like the call is coming from a familiar, trusted contact.
- They then use readily available AI deepfake technology to pretend to be an authority figure, family member or employer. In fact, experts say AI audio deepfakes have become so real that most people can no longer reliably distinguish them from real human voices.
Fake call detection requires both parties to be on and using Android Phone with Google appwhile Google Messages and Google Contacts must also be installed. When a contact calls, their phone “sends a silent confirmation tone to your device in real-time to verify that the call is legitimate and actually coming from the contact’s device.” This digital handshake uses end-to-end encrypted RCS (Rich Communication Services).
If you’re being tricked by an impersonator, your phone will detect that the initial verification signal is missing and ping the contact’s real device to double-check.
If their real device says “I’m not calling now,” you’ll get a warning on your screen advising you to hang up immediately.
The feature will be available globally on Android 12+ phones starting with Pixel devices this month. Fake call detection is enabled by default, but can be turned off at any time.
Google says that given the basics of RCS, “it is possible for other app and device manufacturers to adopt this technology.”
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