Google partners with Google Pay, Navi, and Paytm to bring a new feature that protects users from screen-sharing scams.
Google Play Protect has blocked over 115 million attempts to install potentially malicious apps
Photo Credit: Google
Google, on Thursday, announced several new India-focused artificial intelligence (AI) safety updates. The Mountain View-based tech giant made the announcements during an event in New Delhi. Among the new initiatives and features coming to Indian users are protections for financial apps, new secure technology to replace SMS OTP flows, and expanded access to the SynthID AI watermarking detection tool. The company said these new updates will not only make AI safer to use but also provide individuals with tools to protect themselves from malicious usage of it.
In a blog post, the tech giant detailed the new updates and initiatives it is bringing to India to “protect vulnerable audiences from online harm, build robust privacy and cybersecurity tools for enterprises and AI models that are representative, equitable and inclusive.” Google said these features were being introduced ahead of India's AI Impact Summit, which is scheduled to be held between February 19-20, 2026.
Google is partnering with its Google Pay division and financial apps Navi and Paytm to pilot a new screen-sharing scam alert feature in India. Available on Android 11 and newer, this feature will display an alert if a user opens one of these apps while screen sharing on a call with an unknown contact.
The tech giant is also working on Enhanced Phone Number Verification (ePNV), a new Android-based security protocol that is designed to replace the existing SMS OTP flow for authentication. Google says the new system is a “secure, consented, SIM-based check” which eliminates the vulnerabilities that come with OTPs.
Additionally, the company confirmed that the real-time Scam Detection feature, which flags potential scams on-device via Gemini Nano, is now rolling out to Pixel smartphones. The feature does not record audio or generate transcripts, and no data is sent to Google. Notably, this is turned off by default.
The company also highlighted that Google Play Protect has now blocked more than 115 million attempts to “install sideloaded apps that use sensitive permissions that are frequently abused for financial fraud in India.” SynthID, Google's proprietary AI watermarking and detection technology, is also being expanded to academia, researchers, and several media publishers.
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