Google has introduced a fake call detection feature in the Phone by Google application, designed to counter a growing wave of artificial intelligence-powered voice scams that use deepfake technology to impersonate trusted contacts during live phone calls. Scammers often begin by spoofing a trusted phone number, copying the number of a family member or known contact and routing the call through internet-based tools to make it appear as if it is coming from that contact. They then use widely available artificial intelligence deepfake tools capable of mimicking voices with high accuracy, allowing them to impersonate a family member, employer, or authority figure convincingly enough that experts now believe most people cannot reliably distinguish deepfake voices from real ones.
To counter this, Google is adding a silent verification system. When both callers use the Phone by Google application, the devices quietly confirm the connection in the background between the two phones. The system uses end-to-end encrypted Rich Communication Services to share signals, with Google stating that the process remains completely private and does not expose personal data during verification. The choice of end-to-end encrypted Rich Communication Services as the verification channel is significant, as it means the authentication happens through the same secure messaging infrastructure that Google has been building out across Android, rather than requiring any new network access or data sharing with Google servers.
If a scammer pretends to be someone in a user’s contacts, the verification signal will not match, and the application will alert the user with a warning displayed during the call in real time. This helps users react before sharing sensitive information. The feature is turned on by default, though users can disable it inside the Phone by Google settings if they choose. The decision to enable the feature by default is deliberate, reflecting Google’s view that passive protection is more effective than opt-in security features that many users never activate.
Google is rolling out fake call detection globally this month, arriving first on Pixel devices. The feature supports devices running Android 12 and later. Users with other Android phones can also access it by installing the Phone by Google application from the Play Store and setting it as the default calling application. For Pakistani users, where phone-based impersonation scams targeting families and professionals have been a recurring problem, the arrival of a built-in, real-time verification layer that requires no action from the user represents a meaningful addition to Android’s security stack. As artificial intelligence tools for voice cloning become cheaper and more accessible globally, the window in which humans alone can reliably detect fake calls is narrowing, making system-level verification of the kind Google is introducing an increasingly necessary defence.
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