Google rolls out Live Threat Detection for Pixel, ‘coming soon’ on other phones

The tech giant says Google Play Protect’s Live Threat Detection will initially focus on stalkerwares that try to collect “personal or sensitive data for monitoring purposes without user consent” and later expand its detection capabilities to other malware.

If a harmful app is found on a phone, users will be presented with a real-time alert, which allows them to take action to protect their device. Similar to Apple’s privacy measures regarding Apple Intelligence features, Google’s Live Threat Detection feature will protect user privacy using “Prive Compute Core”, which the tech giant says lets it protect users without collecting data. The functionality is currently available on Pixel 6 and later models, but will soon be available on devices from OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, Samsung and others.

Google also introduced a new AI-powered Scam Detection feature that aims to “stop scams before they can do harm.” Like Google Gemini Nano, Scam Detection uses on-device AI to alert users of a potential scam in real-time. It does this by “detecting conversation patterns commonly associated with scams.” For example, if someone calls you from an unknown number impersonating a bank official or someone you know and asks to urgently transfer money because of some reason, Scam Detection will determine if the call is spam and alert users using audio, haptic alerts and visual warning with a warning stating that you be getting scammed.

By default, this feature will be disabled and users will have to manually enable it by heading over to the Google Dialer settings or choose to turn it off during a particular call. Since all of the data is processed on-device, Google says nothing is stored or sent to its servers.