Google Rolls Out Verified SMS Feature To Messages App

Google is rolling out an update to its Messages app, which brings the Verified SMS feature to help users confirm the identity of businesses that are texting them. This new feature is rolling out in India and a few other global markets.

The highlight of the latest update to the Messages app is to verify the authenticity of businesses by verifying them on a per-message basis. Basically, this will help users if they should trust the messages that they have received from any business or ignore the same and consider it as spam.

Google Verified SMS Feature

With the rollout of the Verified SMS feature to the Messages app, it will become a better platform to receive text messages. You will get to see the business name and the associated logo directly only the message thread.

Also, there will be a verification badge on the same. These will appear as soon as you receive a message from a business that has been enrolled for the Verified SMS feature. These aspects are sufficient to ensure the authenticity of the business.

When it comes to how it works, the company has taken to the support page to elaborate on the new feature. Going by the same, when the Verified SMS feature is enabled and you get a message from a business that is registered will Google, the company will translate the message into an unreadable authenticity code.

Notably, it adds that this feature is quite private and safe as all this happens on your device itself. And, Google will compare this code with the unreadable authenticity code sent to it by the business. The company will use the phone number of your device to create the authenticity codes even though it does not see the messages that you get.

Spam Protection Feature

Besides this, Google is rolling out a spam protection feature as well in the US, which was spotted back in December 2018. This feature also gets an option to report spam messages. Google claims that the feature will work while keeping your message details private and secure.