GoKawiilJoe Maring / Android Authority
TL;DR An Android Authority teardown has revealed that Google is working on a feature to fight phone number spoofing.
Strings suggest that the Google Phone app could warn you when a caller is pretending to be one of your contacts.
This comes roughly a month after we discovered Google’s work on a Verified caller feature.
The Google Phone app has plenty of great features, especially if you’re using a Pixel phone. However, spam call protection, spam detection, and Call Screen are particularly neat tools against marketing calls and scams. Now, it looks like Google is working on another layer of protection against malicious callers.
We cracked open the Google Phone app (version 222.0.913376317 for Pixels) and found evidence of phone number spoofing detection. Check out the strings below.
Code Copy Text <string name="incall_contact_checker_alert_title">This may not be %1$s</string> <string name="incall_contact_checker_alert_default_title">This may not be a real caller</string> <string name="incall_contact_checker_alert_description">"Someone may be pretending to call from your contact's number"</string> <string name="incall_contact_checker_alert_end_call_action">Hang up</string>
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In other words, the Google Phone app could notify you if someone is likely pretending to call from a contact’s phone number. The first string has placeholder text (%1$s) which ostensibly refers to your contact’s saved name.
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