Is this upgrade really coming to Samsung?
NurPhoto via Getty Images
This is interesting. The latest leak from Samsung ahead of the Galaxy S26 release could give you another reason to upgrade your phone. But if true, it also emphasizes just how reliant Samsung is on Google advances to power its latest flagship.
Per GSMArena, it seems Google’s scam detection is coming to Samsung’s new phone. This headline update from last year currently “only works on Google Pixel devices.”
ForbesMicrosoft Starts Sharing Your Location With Your EmployerBy Zak Doffman
The leak is based on code “inside the Phone by Google app,” which mentions Galaxy S26 model numbers. This is “intriguing,” GSMArena points out, because “Samsung phones don’t use Google’s Phone app, and while you can install it from the Play Store, it’s unclear if it will gain the necessary permissions to use on-device AI for its purposes.”
It’s also intriguing for another reason. Google’s scam detection was the driver behind the Android-maker’s safer-than-iPhone campaign that heralded Android’s lead in protecting users from malicious calls and text messages.
That campaign was based on a survey that predated Apple’s release of iOS 26, which added both text scam filtering and call filtering to iPhone for the first time.
Samsung has always added its own advances to securing and safeguarding Galaxy phones, over and above stock Android software. This leak — again if true — suggests Google’s AI defenses are now at a place where they’re more difficult to replicate.
ForbesGoogle’s Android Update—Bad News For Millions Of Pixel UsersBy Zak Doffman
Finally, it’s “intriguing” because scam detection was one of the first-to-Pixel or even only-to-Pixel Android upgrades that highlighted the challenge for other OEMs — especially Samsung — in competing with Google’s unique control of hardware and firmware within the Android ecosystem.
In any case, this is good news for Samsung users upgrading to the new phone. Given the surge in text and call scams, any new AI defense is perfectly timed.