Pixel phones will be able to detect and report malicious apps in real time

Google is beefing up its malware detection with new protections designed to suss out ever-sneakier bad actors.

Android’s Google Play Protect service is getting an update called live threat detection which seeks out potentially harmful apps on your phone by analyzing app behavior and alerts you in realtime if something looks fishy. The update was first announced at Google I/O earlier this year and is available now to Pixel 6 and newer phones. It should come to additional non-Pixel Android phones from Lenovo, OnePlus, Nothing, and Oppo, among others “in the coming months.”

Live threat detection targets particularly hard-to-spot malware apps that hide their intentions well. Rather than just scanning apps for malicious code when you download them, Play Protect will keep looking for signs of suspicious app behavior even after they’re on your phone. This can help it spot malware that remains dormant at first and later starts engaging in malicious activity. This detection takes place on-device using an Android privacy infrastructure called Private Compute Core to help keep user data secure, and users will get real-time alerts to take action if needed.

Google is rolling out another security feature today, too: scam call detection. Also announced at I/O, this feature uses on-device AI to analyze phone calls and looks for signs that that caller is a scammer. If it spots suspicious conversational patterns or requests typical of scam attempts, it will flag the user and encourage them to end the call. It’s only available to members of the Phone by Google app’s beta program with a Pixel 6 or later (as of this morning that program appears to be full) and will roll out to more Android phones in the future.