• by Ray Schultz , December 28, 2018

Google is rolling out a new spam protection feature that prompts Android users when they open Messages. 

Some users are seeing the prompt, which guides them to a Google support page and allows them to post their preferences in “Manage in Settings,” 9to5 Google reports. However, many apparently have not yet received it. 

Android Police notes that "when the setting is enabled, some information about the messages you receive (such as inbound phone numbers) is sent to Google, though stripped of identifying content like your phone number or the actual message itself.” 

When manually reported, the spam messages are submitted to Google, it adds.

9to5Google adds that is “not yet widely available with Messages 3.9 and still requires a server-side update.” 

It continues that the new feature “compliments the existing ability to block a phone number, and a similar detection ability in the Google Phone dialer for Pixel and Android One devices.”