What you need to know
- Android's rolling out its big June Drop today, and the two main focuses are on safety.
- The Phone by Google app picks up "Fake Call Detection," which works to fight against scammers posing as contacts you know.
- Kids 13 and under will receive Personal Safety app features, such as displaying their medical information and emergency contacts on the lock screen.
- Google is also expanding its Quick Share/AirDrop support to more Android phones.
Safety is the name of the game for Google's Android update rolling out to devices, but there's an additional expansion that involves iPhones.
This afternoon (Jun 2), Google detailed what's going on with its June Android Drop, such as extra call protections for users. Today, the company introduced "Fake Call Detection." Users can most likely put this in the same space as Android's other spam/scam calling protections. Google states its Phone app will "verify if a call is actually coming from a contact's device."
This is particularly useful for scammers pretending to call from a number you're familiar with. A call will appear on your device as your parent or close friend; however, after Android verifies the number, it will either stay quiet or warn you to steer clear. According to the press release, Fake Call Detection starts working once the call is answered. A bright red alert will appear on the call screen, stating "This may not be" who you think it is.
Users are encouraged to hang up before anything malicious happens. Fake Call Detection is rolling out for the Phone by Google app on devices with Android 12 or higher.
Callers aren't the only ones receiving better protections this month. Google also announced access to features in the Personal Safety app for kids.
For kids under 13, Google states they can add any medical information and set emergency contacts to be displayed on their lock screen. What's more, Android Car Crash detection can be enabled for kids, which will automatically call emergency services and text any added emergency contacts. This Android Drop will enable real-time location sharing with emergency contacts and Safety Check. Google reiterates that the Personal Safety app is available globally, and that these safety features for kids are "coming soon."
Quick shares for AirDrop expands
Android and iOS have inched ever closer together over the past few months. From RCS messaging (encryption for texts as well) to file sharing, it feels like we've been covering a lot on both. Quick Share and AirDrop have been the latest hot topic, and Google says it's looking to expand its support to even more Android phones this month. Without an internet connection, users can share photos, videos, and documents from their Android phone to an iOS device.
Google states this capability is arriving for more Android phones here in June. Once this arrives, users can check to see if they have this capability. While the June Android Drop has been announced today, it might take a while before we all have everything detailed in this post.
Late last year, Google made the big announcement that its latest phones, the Pixel 10 series, feature support for file sharing between Quick Share and AirDrop. Users need to make sure their devices are set to accept "Everyone for 10 minutes" before files can be sent/received. Google said it would look to include more Android phones later, and that started in February for the Pixel 9 series. An even wider rollout for Samsung phones and Nothing phones was mentioned, too.
We're expecting this on the Galaxy S26 first.
Android Central's Take
The Quick Share expansion for AirDrop is a pretty expected update. Google didn't detail every device that's receiving this expanded support, but hopefully it's extensive. The safety protections for kids is especially timely on Google's part. We're right at the start of June, which means school is letting out soon. This should help give parents some peace of mind if their child is out with others for the day.
