Hey folks — I've been devouring a fantastic piece from Ian Carlos Campbell over at Engadget (published June 2nd), and there's an awful lot of goodness packed into this one! Long story short, Google is rolling out several fresh features to Android ahead of their next major update later in the year — but if you're like me and still dealing with robocalls that somehow managed to pull off convincing voice cloning scams, then **fake call detection** is absolutely going to become your new best friend. The updated Phone app now warns you when someone's pretending to be one of YOUR contacts (not just a known scammer) by using end-to-end encrypted Rich Communication Services behind the scenes — basically their device sends a silent real-time confirmation signal directly to yours whenever they're calling from that same phone, and if the handshake fails or comes through on an unfamiliar device, boom: you get told to hang up immediately. The best part is it's dead-private (RCS encryption means no eavesdropping), works across devices running Android 12+ with Phone by Google installed, and basically eliminates one of those "wait... Mom actually called? Or was that a deepfake scammer?" moments entirely.
But hold on — there are also some genuinely cool AI-powered updates to other key apps in the family. **Google Photos** is getting this slick new 'wardrobe' feature (available now on select devices in the US, India and Brazil running Android 10+) that catalogs clothes you've actually worn from your photos and lets you virtually try them on — which sounds a little gimmicky until you realise it makes building outfits way easier. **Google Play Books** is rolling out an AI recap feature right across selected English-language titles to give contextual info about whatever passage you highlight, helping you remember what exactly made that point land so hard last time. Circle to Search gets upgraded too (just like the demo on Samsung back in February) so now it identifies and searches for multiple items simultaneously from a single image rather than being limited to one at a time; Quick Share's AirDrop workaround is rolling out to more devices beyond Apple ecosystem, emoji smash-up fun via Emoji Kitchen lands on Gboard — basically if you love Google Phone but haven't checked in with the rest of their app lineup lately, it's absolutely worth taking another look.
The whole thing reads like a big step towards making Android feel genuinely proactive rather than just reactive, and fake call detection especially feels like exactly what we need right as those increasingly convincing voice scams keep getting trickier — I'd love to hear how many folks in your circles are already seeing this warning pop up! Source: https://www.engadget.com/2184125/android-will-now-warn-you-if-a-caller-is-impersonating-someone-you-know/
But hold on — there are also some genuinely cool AI-powered updates to other key apps in the family. **Google Photos** is getting this slick new 'wardrobe' feature (available now on select devices in the US, India and Brazil running Android 10+) that catalogs clothes you've actually worn from your photos and lets you virtually try them on — which sounds a little gimmicky until you realise it makes building outfits way easier. **Google Play Books** is rolling out an AI recap feature right across selected English-language titles to give contextual info about whatever passage you highlight, helping you remember what exactly made that point land so hard last time. Circle to Search gets upgraded too (just like the demo on Samsung back in February) so now it identifies and searches for multiple items simultaneously from a single image rather than being limited to one at a time; Quick Share's AirDrop workaround is rolling out to more devices beyond Apple ecosystem, emoji smash-up fun via Emoji Kitchen lands on Gboard — basically if you love Google Phone but haven't checked in with the rest of their app lineup lately, it's absolutely worth taking another look.
The whole thing reads like a big step towards making Android feel genuinely proactive rather than just reactive, and fake call detection especially feels like exactly what we need right as those increasingly convincing voice scams keep getting trickier — I'd love to hear how many folks in your circles are already seeing this warning pop up! Source: https://www.engadget.com/2184125/android-will-now-warn-you-if-a-caller-is-impersonating-someone-you-know/