Back in October of last year, Google announced several security-related changes coming to its Google Messages app. Those features were scheduled to rollout over time and the most noteworthy of them all has apparently (finally) reached wide rollout to all users. We’re talking about the “Sensitive Content Warnings” for things like incoming photos that contain nudity or a reminder of the risks should you send your own nudes.
Google Messages Sensitive Content Warnings: If you open Google Messages on your Android device and head into Settings (tap on your profile image>Message settings), you’ll find a a section called “Protection & Safety.” Within this section is the flag for spam protection, but underneath, you should now see a “Manage sensitive content warnings” area that doesn’t actually look clickable, yet it is. Tapping on that takes you to the area below for “Sensitive content warnings.”
As you’ll see on this page, when turned on, this feature can recognize if incoming or outgoing photos contain nudity and will do the following:
- Incoming photos are blurred: Photos with nudity in Google Messages are blurred and can be deleted before viewing
- Sending a photo requires extra steps: If you try to send an image with nudity, you’ll be reminded of the risks and you must confirm to continue
Google is also providing a link to additional resources on making responsible decisions online, like being very careful when sending nude photos. I should note that this all can happen when you forward a message as well, not just when you are the original sender.
Because you are likely freaked out by Google Messages recognizing a nude image and being able to block it, just know that Google says all of this detection happens on the device and does not send detected nude images to Google. And with that in mind, Google also suggests that this feature isn’t perfect and may “occasionally detect images that don’t contain nudity or not detect images that contain nudity.”
OK, so when does this get turned on? Google classifies users by age and if they have supervised or unsupervised accounts and then turns this on or off by default. In short, for adults, this feature is off by default. After that, it all depends on age and what type of account the user has. For anyone under 18, it’ll likely be turned on by default, but the type of account then determines if it can be turned off or not:
- Supervised users: This feature can’t be turned off but parents can control it through the Family Link app.
- Unsupervised teens (13–17 years of age): This feature can be turned off in the Google Account settings.
- Adults (18+ years of age): This feature is off by default but it can be turned on in Google Messages settings.
These sensitive content warnings do not work on videos. More on all of this at Google’s support page.
Google Play Link: Google Messages
// 9to5Google
