Your Google Messages inbox is about to look like a naughty Anime thanks to the new Sensitive Content Warnings feature rolling out on Android phones. The feature was a long-promised update, designed to keep people a little safer in regards to sensitive images online.
Ars Technica spotted that the feature has already been implemented on some Android devices, applying blur filters to images it deems to be sensitive. So, if all of your nudes are starting to look a little blurrier, maybe check your settings before running out for a new prescription.
If your Android device hasn't already, it'll soon automatically download an app called Android System SafetyCore. While it looks a little suss, this is a verified app by Google that provides phones access to an AI tool designed to find sensitive images like nudes. If it's an incoming pic, it'll be automatically blurred by the app, and offer an explanation and the option to unblur the image. For the senders of spicy images, it'll throw up a warning reminding people to perhaps rethink what they send and who they send it to.
That's always good advice, as it's easy to forget how quickly we lose control of this kind of content once it's sent and it's impossible to know where it will end up, and how it may potentially be used against you. Perhaps Google should include a warning about consent when receiving images and put some kind of bar on resending them too. For now it'll be nice to at least have some warning on unsolicited dick pics for a change.
If you really want to, you can uninstall Android System SafetyCore by finding it in the apps list and getting rid of it, but it's pretty small, lightwieght, and looks helpful. It allows for the AI detection to all take place on the device itself, rather than on the cloud which is super important for privacy. This keeps the potentially sensitive images strictly between the sender and receiver as opposed to involving an online third party.
It's smart, because it avoids one more way these things can wind up being leaked to the public. It'd be pretty embarrassing to have your nudes go live because Google's Sensitive Content Warnings feature decided to host them all online and then itself became victim to an attack.
The other nifty thing is this feature will roll out to more android devices than usual. While generally helpful and useful for people of all ages, this is an app that's clearly got kids' safety in mind. So it's a good thing it'll be coming to many often unsupported phones including those running Android Go that are more likely to be used by young people. It only requires 2GB of RAM to run, so even the most budget devices should be able to handle it as long as they're not too old.
Automatic blur and warnings are a pretty great idea. Even if you do want to receive whatever nastiness it is you're into, there's nothing worse than innocently opening your phone on a train and accidentally giving all the other passengers an eye full.
Unfortunately, it's likely most folks won't even notice the new feature, and that's not because their nude collecting game is off. Most Android users have their phones set to the standard unrestricted mode, so Sensitive Content Warnings won't be turned on by default. Only supervised child devices will have Sensitive Content Warnings turned on by default, and they have to be disabled by the family account holder.
For all those adults out there, pretend or otherwise, you'll have to go into the Google Messages settings and turn the new feature on yourselves if you want that bit more of a buffer against those in the buff.
