13:07Machine-translated from Azerbaijani by AIRead in Azerbaijani
WhatsApp Scam Alert Rolls Out to Android Beta Users
WhatsApp has finally made the Scam Alert security feature, which it has been working on for some time, available to some Android users. WhatsApp Scam Alert is currently available only to users enrolled in the messenger’s beta program, and although a date for its full public release has not yet been announced, the feature appears to be close to its final version. The feature first surfaced in June, and Meta officially explained it about two weeks ago. Scam Alert has now been activated in beta version 2.26.34.1 of WhatsApp for Android, and the new feature is currently visible only to selected beta users. Although the company has not said when the broad rollout will begin, development is believed to be nearing completion. As its name suggests, Scam Alert warns users when it detects that a message from an unknown number may be fraudulent. The other party—the person who sent the message—is not told that the recipient is using Scam Alert. When the warning window appears, the user can mark the sender as trusted or block and report them.
If the conversation is deemed trustworthy, the user can help improve the accuracy of the Scam Alert model by sharing the last five messages from that conversation with WhatsApp. However, Scam Alert is not enabled by default; it must be turned on manually in the Settings - Account section of the WhatsApp for Android app. The feature is entirely optional, and users can choose not to use it. In its official statement, Meta described WhatsApp Scam Alert as a new optional feature that uses an on-device machine learning model to warn users about potentially fraudulent messages. The company added that message content does not leave the device for classification and is not automatically sent to WhatsApp, Meta or third parties. This approach aims to provide an additional layer of security that remains entirely under the user’s control while preserving the existing end-to-end encryption.
If the conversation is deemed trustworthy, the user can help improve the accuracy of the Scam Alert model by sharing the last five messages from that conversation with WhatsApp. However, Scam Alert is not enabled by default; it must be turned on manually in the Settings - Account section of the WhatsApp for Android app. The feature is entirely optional, and users can choose not to use it. In its official statement, Meta described WhatsApp Scam Alert as a new optional feature that uses an on-device machine learning model to warn users about potentially fraudulent messages. The company added that message content does not leave the device for classification and is not automatically sent to WhatsApp, Meta or third parties. This approach aims to provide an additional layer of security that remains entirely under the user’s control while preserving the existing end-to-end encryption.