One of the standout safety features on Pixel phones, Scam Detection, could soon make its way to non-Pixel devices for the first time. Clues buried in Google’s Phone app suggest that Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S26 series may be in line to receive the feature, potentially marking a significant expansion of Google’s on-device AI protections, as per Android Authority.
Scam Detection debuted with the Pixel 9 lineup and alerts users to potential scams in real time during phone calls, text messages, and even chat conversations. Unlike traditional spam filters that work after the fact, this system analyses conversations as they happen and flags suspicious behaviour instantly. So far, it has remained a Pixel-only capability.
There are already differences in how Scam Detection works across Pixel generations. Pixel 9 models (excluding the Pixel 9a) and the newer Pixel 10 series use Gemini Nano running entirely on-device via AI Core in markets such as Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, the UK, and the US. Meanwhile, Pixel 6 and later phones in the US rely on Google’s older on-device machine learning models instead of Gemini Nano.
Now, as per the report, new evidence suggests that Google is preparing to extend Scam Detection beyond Pixels. Within Phone by Google app version v206.0.857916353, references have surfaced that appear to match model numbers associated with the Galaxy S26 series. This strongly hints that Google is at least testing compatibility with Samsung’s next-generation flagships. If this does move forward, the Galaxy S26 could become the first non-Pixel phone to support Scam Detection, claims the report.
There is, however, an obvious complication. Samsung phones do not ship with the Google Phone app by default. Instead, they rely on Samsung’s own Phone app as the system dialler. While Galaxy users can manually install Google Phone from the Play Store and set it as the default, it’s unclear whether a user-installed app would have the deep system permissions required for Scam Detection to function properly.
One possible solution would be for Samsung to preload Google Phone as the default dialler on the Galaxy S26 series, effectively sidelining its own Phone app. That would be a major shift, but it wouldn’t be unprecedented. In 2024, Samsung dropped Samsung Messages in favour of Google Messages to improve RCS support, moving away from carrier-dependent implementations to Google’s Jibe servers.
That said, there’s less obvious pressure for Samsung to abandon its dialler app unless Google is offering something compelling in return. Allowing Galaxy S26 devices access to Pixel-style Scam Detection could be one such incentive, positioning Samsung’s phones as part of a more exclusive AI safety feature set.
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