Google's Call Screen, a tool that fights against spam callers and the like, may become available on Android One smartphones made by Nokia and Motorola.
The feature made its debut on the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL back in October and soon expanded to the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Now it might make its way to devices outside the family.
Google Phone App Beta Reveals Clues
The Reddit user hkyq spotted two new flags in Google's Phone app in the latest beta build:
__data_rollout__SpeakEasy.CallScreenEnglishUsForNokia__launched__
__data_rollout__SpeakEasy.CallScreenEnglishUsForMoto__launched__
These are pretty self-explanatory already, but just to spell things out, they both include "Nokia" and "Moto," as well as "CallScreen." Also, as Android Police points out, "SpeakEasy" is code for Call Screen.
While this could be taken as a sure sign that the feature is going to arrive on Nokia and Motorola devices, there's no word on a release date. They're also found to be disabled, meaning that even a gradual rollout isn't happening just yet.
The company's Phone app is compatible only with certain smartphones it approved. That said, Call Screen is likely rolling out only to Android One devices, where Nokia's recent handsets and some of Motorola's fit the bill.
Google's Fight Against Spam
Google has been contending with spam for the past few years. Some of the measures it took include a red warning sign on the Phone app when there was a suspicious call and filters that automatically blocked them.
Call Screen is one of the brand's latest efforts in the fight. It allowed users to let Google Assistant take a call for them, ask the caller for more info regarding why they're calling, display a real-time transcription of the response of the person on the other end of the line, and provide options to pick up or reject the call or report it as spam. As anyone can imagine, it's a big feature that made the Pixel series an even more compelling buy.
