A new security feature for Android is reportedly rolling out to some smartphones and is expected to be rolled out more widely later. It will alert users if a fraudulent or dangerous page is opened.

A new security feature for Android is reportedly rolling out to some smartphones and is expected to be rolled out more widely later. It will alert users if a fraudulent or dangerous page is opened.

Browsing the Internet is not a risk-free activity, and even simply viewing a seemingly harmless web page can cause damage to our device or expose our personal data. While most computer Internet browsers have long included protections to warn users when they attempt to access potentially dangerous sites, smartphone browsing does not necessarily enjoy the same level of security. On the phone, many applications allow you to open links to external sites without using the Internet browser, and without always checking that the URL is valid or that the page visited is not known to be dangerous.

A new function introduced by Google, aimed precisely at limiting this risk, was reported by Mishaal Rahman on X (ex-Twitter). The user indicates in his tweet that a new page called “Android Safe Browsing” has just appeared in the security settings of certain Android smartphones. The description associated with the feature states that “Safe Browsing alerts you to security threats, such as harmful links and web pages, when you browse supported applications. For example, you might receive an alert if you tap a link in your news app that takes you to a known phishing site.“, which has the merit of being perfectly clear.

The Android Safe Browsing page also contains a section detailing the famous supported applications, which will therefore display a warning if you consult a page known to be dangerous, but the list is unfortunately empty at the moment. It will certainly fill up as the secure browsing function is deployed and developers integrate it into their applications. The screenshot of the Android Safe Browsing page also shows the existence of a switch “Use live threat protection” (Use Live Threat Protection) which seems to indicate that the feature can be disabled manually. It remains to be seen whether it will be enabled by default for everyone when it is deployed or if it will have to be enabled by each user.

Android Safe Browsing feature will be accessible through the app Settingsin the section Security and Privacy Android smartphones. However, it has only been spotted on Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones at the moment, so you probably won’t find it on your own device if it’s not one of the aforementioned models. As Android Safe Browsing relies on the SafetyNet Safe Browsing API, a library that lets apps know which URLs Google has identified as unsafe, it is likely that the Safe Browsing feature will be rolled out to more smartphone models in the next Google Play Services update.