Google has always had a customer-centric approach about its applications and features. Google Messages now has two important security updates for Android users, one being the verified SMS tag and the other being spam protection.
Authentic businesses which send messages to users will have a verified tag next to their name. This will help users identify texts from original businesses. The senders of these official messages representing brands, businesses, organisations etc will hold a verification badge with their sender id to identify important and genuineness of messages.
This feature will be available in 9 countries before the rest of the world. These countries are India, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, The UK, France, Philippines, Spain and Canada. For now, Verified SMSs will be available to messages from Google Pay and other verification codes. Google is working on including more brands and organisations to be included in this list.
Speaking about the necessity of verification, Roma Slyusarchuk, Software Engineer, Messages writes in a blog post, “SMS messages help businesses share useful information with consumers, things like one-time passwords, account alerts or appointment confirmations. Yet sometimes it can be difficult to trust the identity of these messages, which are often sent from a random number. Some messages may even come from bad actors pretending to be from businesses you trust and ask for private information or link to dangerous websites—this is called phishing.”
She further said, “Verified SMS for Messages, rolling out today in a number of countries, will help you confirm the true identity of the business that’s texting you.”
The other feature Google has announced is Spam protection. This feature will identify Spam messages by alerting users with a suspected spam notification. Users then get the option to either choose to report or not report spam. This helps users report spam messages and block spam message channels over SMS. This feature was first introduced in December 2018 since some time.
Google also released Rich Communication Service to its Android Messages app, which turns age-old SMS into interactive ones. Users now have the ability to send pictures and videos to their contacts with the ability to check if a message has been delivered.
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