This Android trick helps you tell scam messages from real ones

Spam and scam texts have become a daily nuisance, and some messages are crafted well enough to leave you unsure whether they’re legitimate. A helpful rule is to treat messages from unknown numbers as suspicious, but when in doubt Android offers a built-in way to help decide.

Circle to Search uses on-device AI to read a text or DM and flag it if it looks like a scam. The feature is available on Android 13 or later and requires a supported device — Google Pixel 6 or newer and/or Samsung Galaxy S21 or newer. To enable it, pull the Notification Shade down twice, tap the gear icon to open Settings, then go to Display & touch > Navigation mode and switch Circle to Search on.

With a message open, long-press the navigation bar (or the Home button if you use three-button navigation), draw a circle around the message, and wait for the onboard AI to indicate whether it’s suspicious. If Circle to Search flags a message as a scam, block and report it.

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