After six months of development, Google has reportedly begun rolling out its spam protection feature for Messages for some Android users.
The feature was first spotted by Android Police, which reported that according to some tipsters, spam protection feature was steadily going live, though it was not visible to everyone just yet.
The change appears to be on the server-side and in a limited rollout for the time being as other devices, which were tested by Android Police, were not equipped with the feature.
A new “Spam protection” option is visible in the Advanced section of the Settings menu in Messages. To check whether your phone has the option, go to the Settings menu in Messages. In Settings, select the Advanced option. Under Advanced, you will see Spam protection feature which allows you to enable or disable spam protection.
Google has maintained that Messages is its primary communication solution for its users. Earlier this week, Google announced that it was planning to shift its Messages web app from Android.com to Google.com. The move is seen as the tech giant’s plan to minimise the use of the word “Android”.
How does the feature work?
When the spam protection feature is enabled, Google collects messaging data from the user. However, this data does not include the content of their messages or their phone number, as per Googles support site.
How the feature functions at the back end is still unknown. It seems to look at messaging data statistically to determine common factors between spam messages. If you send a spam report manually, it still submits the full message to Google, including phone numbers of the sender and the recipient as well as the message’s contents.
Google to shift Android Messages web app
In a blow to the Android brand, recent media reports stated that Google was planning to shift its Messages Web app from Android.com to Google.com, citing changes to Chrome OS.
The move was seen as Google’s plan to minimise the use of the word “Android”, 9to5google.com reported.
For a long time, the Android Messages app has been hosted at the URL “messages.android.com”. However, the service could be shifted to “messages.google.com”, the report said.
Currently, the messages.google.com URL doesn’t exist. The changes are expected to be made only in Chrome OS v72 or v73.
It is still unclear as to when the change would take effect, but Google may temporarily use both the URLs for to make the transition to messages.google.com smoother.
Elton Gomes is a staff writer at Qrius