The Android 14 QPR2 beta is now available, giving Android beta testers a glimpse of a number of new features that they can try out and that may be coming in the near future. One of these features is designed to protect users from phishing scams.

The feature was discovered by Mishaal Rahman of Android Police, who found a hidden page centered around "scanning for scam apps." Apparently, this was found under the "More Security and Privacy" option in the "Security" section of settings. When enabled, this feature is supposed to "check app activity for phishing and other deceptive practices."

These scans are done on your device, but any deceptive activity detected would send some information to Google Play to "identify threats and alert app users."

Rahman notes that details on how this will work are fairly scarce, as the feature has not been officially revealed. However, as he dived deeper into the beta source code, there is a new system called "ContentProtection" that is built to detect when an app tries to display a password field or asks for relevant information such as username, email, or phone number It appears to be built to detect when an app tries to display a password field or asks for related information like username, email, or phone number.

Apparently this means that Android is using a block list system to prevent these types of fields from being used by certain apps. according to Rahman, Android will check whether an app is a system app, or accesses the Internet It also appears to be able to check if it needs to request permission.

It is definitely a good thing that Android may be taking a more proactive approach to user security. As angry Internet commentators like to tell me, there is an inherent insecurity in Android's ability to sideload apps from third-party sources - especially if you are not careful where they come from.

Similarly, no matter how careful and tech-savvy you think you are, it is surprisingly easy to fall for phishing scams. Whether it's through social engineering, a cleverly accurate fake login page, or the fact that you've had a bad day and let it slip through your fingers unnoticed. Even if it only saves one person from a sketchy app or service, it's still a win.

Given that this feature is hidden in the Android QPR2 beta and likely not yet working properly, we'll probably have to wait to actually get this protection on our phones, without it appearing as part of Android 14, It may be saved for inclusion in Android 15. Stay tuned.