Google announces upcoming security tools for Android, including improved protection against banking scam calls

Google just livestreamed the Android Show: I/O Edition, an event that takes place the week before the company’s annual I/O conference. This gave us a glimpse of many new features in the Android operating system, and many of them focus on security.

First, the company is preparing enhanced protections against fraudulent banking calls. This is when scammers pretend to be a bank to obtain information about their account so they can get money back. The bad actors here have actually become quite sophisticated, as the spoofing technology makes it appear as if the call is coming from a bank.

Google is partnering with some banks and financial institutions to slow down this practice. There is a new identity theft protection feature that automatically stops calls from numbers pretending to be one of the participating banks. This also sends a notification to the user, letting them know that they likely received a scam call.

This feature will roll out in the coming weeks for devices running Android 11 and above, but there is one major caveat for US-based users. As of this writing, Google has only collaborated with Revolut, Itaú, and Nubank, none of which operate in the United States. The company promises it will “expand to more banks later this year.”

Google also announced an imminent expansion of its live threat detection feature. This is the platform that analyzes application behavior to look for anything suspicious. The tool will soon be able to identify more apps “looking to scam or abuse users.”

It uses what is called dynamic signal monitoring to detect patterns or suspicious actions performed by an application. This checks for SMS forwarding, which is when an app forwards a message to another number, and a trick where the app fakes accessibility permissions to display content on the screen. These improvements will come to Android 17 devices later this year.

Some security improvements are coming to protect you from device theft. There will be more settings options for auth lock failure soon. Additionally, users will be able to lock a phone with biometric authentication, in addition to traditional passcodes. Once marked lost, thieves won’t be able to do anything with the phone until it’s biometrically unlocked. This will be enabled by default on all new Android 17 devices in the near future.

Finally, there’s an interesting little privacy tool that focuses on app permissions and location data. A button will allow users to temporarily share a specific location within an app, as long as that app remains open. Google says this will be useful for “quick tasks, like finding a nearby coffee shop.” This way the app will not have unlimited access to location data.