Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR New code suggests Google is bringing its AI-powered Scam Detection feature to the Galaxy S26 series, potentially ending Pixel exclusivity.
Model numbers for the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra were discovered alongside Pixel codenames in the Google Phone app in code related to the Scam Detection feature.
It is currently unclear if Samsung will replace its own dialer with the Google Phone app or if the feature will work as a user-installed app.
One of the best Pixel features is Scam Detection. Introduced with the Pixel 9 series, Scam Detection notifies users about potential scams as they occur. This is done for phone calls, text messages, and even chat apps. So far, Scam Detection has been a Pixel-only feature, but it seems the feature could finally be losing that exclusivity, potentially starting with the upcoming Galaxy S26 series.
Scam Detection is available on a variety of Pixel phones, but there’s a slight difference in how it is implemented across generations.
Pixel 9 series (excluding Pixel 9a) and Pixel 10 series in Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, the UK, and the US get Scam Detection powered by on-device Gemini Nano via AI Core. Pixel 6 and later devices in the US also get Scam Detection, but it is powered by Google’s on-device machine learning models.
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Within the Phone by Google app v206.0.857916353, we’ve spotted clues that indicate Google is working to bring Scam detection to the upcoming Galaxy S26 series, potentially making them the first non-Pixel phones to get the feature.
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