Google published consumer guidance on October 15, 2026 explaining how Android users can review suspicious text messages for scams with Circle to Search, which returns an AI Overview with guidance and suggested next steps before a user clicks a link or shares personal information.
In a Safety & Security post on The Keyword, Google said Circle to Search on Android can review suspicious text messages to help identify potential scams. To run the check, a user long-presses the home button or navigation bar on an Android device to activate Circle to Search, then draws a circle around the message in question. The feature then shows an AI Overview with guidance and insights, including suggested next steps; if the results show red flags, the post advises considering deleting the message and blocking the number. A footnote on the post states that results, availability, and compatibility may vary.
How Google Describes the Analysis
An article on Google’s Android site describes Circle to Search as a detector for text-message scams and smishing, the term for SMS phishing. According to the article, when a user circles a suspicious message, Android uses AI to check it against scam patterns and web data and returns a quick assessment. The stated basis for the analysis is online information that can identify telltale signs of scams, such as language overtly asking for payments in short timeframes and the integrity of included links, meaning whether they point to reputable, official websites or to suspicious and unknown addresses. The article presents the steps as a way to check a link without ever opening it in a browser.
The same article walks through common scam categories the check applies to: financial and banking impersonation, delivery and retail impersonators, government and utility fraud such as fake DMV or unpaid toll-fee texts, and wrong-number messages that use social engineering to start a conversation leading toward a fake investment or data-theft trap. It recommends a stop, circle, search, then delete-and-block sequence for handling suspicious texts, and states that in most cases simply opening a text message does not compromise a phone. The danger, the article says, starts when a user clicks a link, downloads an attachment, or replies.
Feature History and Availability
The capability predates the October 15, 2026 guidance. Google announced on December 2, 2025 that it had added scam-spotting capabilities to Circle to Search and Google Lens, saying its systems use AI and information from the web to assess whether a message is likely a scam before the user sees an overview with guidance, insights, and suggested next steps. Google said the capability was available globally in Circle to Search and Lens and would appear when its systems have high confidence in the quality of the response. The Lens path works through the Google app on Android and iOS: the user takes a screenshot of the message, opens Lens, and taps the screenshot.
Google’s Android Help Center documents the same Circle to Search and Lens steps and separately documents notification-based Scam Detection for chat messages, which is available on select Android devices and warns users about likely scams by analyzing new message notifications from supported apps. The Help Center lists the languages that feature supports — Arabic, English, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish — and states that it runs in a secure, isolated environment, with message content remaining private and not sent to Google unless the user chooses to share it.
Circle to Search Basics and Related Rollout
Circle to Search itself lets users search anything on their phone screen without switching apps, using gestures such as circling, scribbling, highlighting, and tapping, according to Google’s official how-to. The feature is activated by long-pressing the home button or, on devices set to gesture navigation, the navigation handle, and users can turn it on or off in settings. The how-to notes that multisearch follow-up questions are available in select regions and languages and that AI-powered overviews are offered for certain queries.
The October 15 guidance arrived one day after a broader Android security announcement. On October 14, 2026, Google said it was rolling out new Android scam defenses that include Enhanced protection mode in Google Messages, expanded chat scam alerts across more devices, and call-forwarding and screen-sharing safeguards. In that post, Google said its existing AI-powered Scam Detection in Phone by Google and Google Messages flags more than 5 million suspected scam calls and texts every month, and cited a Google-commissioned evaluation by Leviathan Security Group of built-in defenses that covered tools including Circle to Search threat warnings.
