Google rolls out spam protection to Android Messages

Spam may be something that's most commonly associated with email, but it's also something that blights text messaging. Google is trying to do something about the problem with a spam protection feature for Messages on Android.

This is a feature we learned about earlier in the year, and it is now starting to roll out to handsets. In order for the feature to work, "some" information about the messages you receive needs to be sent to Google -- something that it sure to raise a few eyebrows (and hackles) among the privacy-centric.

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As ever, this is something of a staged roll out, so it's possible that you won't have access to the feature just yet. If you do, you can access it in Messages by tapping Settings > Advanced > Spam protection where you will find a simple enable/disable toggle.

You'll also see a warning informing you that some message details will be shared with Google if the feature is enabled:

To detect spam, some info about your messages is sent to Google without including the actual content or your phone number.

While you wait for spam protection to arrive on your phone, you still have the option of blocking and reporting numbers that sent you junk messages.

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