{"id":270960,"date":"2026-06-12T04:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/9-google-messages-settings-i-change-on-every-new-android-phone-and-why\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T05:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T09:05:09","slug":"9-google-messages-settings-i-change-on-every-new-android-phone-and-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/9-google-messages-settings-i-change-on-every-new-android-phone-and-why\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Google Messages settings I change on every new Android phone &#8211; and why"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/google-messages-settings-i-change-on-new-android-phone-why\/\">9 Google Messages settings I change on every new Android phone &#8211; and why<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/google-messages-settings-i-change-on-new-android-phone-why\/\">https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/google-messages-settings-i-change-on-new-android-phone-why\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-06-12 04:51:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.zdnet.com\">www.zdnet.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>    <span class=\"c-shortcodeImage_credit g-outer-spacing-top-xsmall u-block\">Elyse Betters Picaro \/ ZDNET<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Follow ZDNET: <span class=\"c-commerceLink\"><span>Add us as a preferred source<\/span><\/span> on Google.<\/p>\n<h3>  ZDNET&#8217;s key takeaways  <\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Google Messages has several settings worth checking.<\/li>\n<li>PSA: Gemini chats in Messages are not end-to-end encrypted.<\/li>\n<li>Also, small changes can make texting cleaner and less distracting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Google Messages is one of those apps that seem simple enough, until they aren&#8217;t. It has settings for RCS chats, read receipts, typing indicators, verification codes, nudity warnings, Gemini, spam filtering, bubbles, and so much more. That&#8217;s a lot for a texting app. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Also:\u00a0<\/strong><strong>How to share your location on Android: 5 quick and easy ways<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So, when I set up a new Android phone, I always do a quick Google Messages check and adjust a few things before firing off my first messages. My goal is to text whom I want as easily, privately, and securely as I can, with minimal interruptions and data sharing. Why am I using a Google app then? I know. But there are ways to improve Messages and get a much better experience.  <\/p>\n<h2>  1. I turn off Sensitive Content Warnings (and uninstall SafetyCore)  <\/h2>\n<p>Google&#8217;s Sensitive Content Warnings feature can detect, blur, and warn about images that may contain nudity. The warnings appear when receiving, sending, or forwarding images in a chat. All detection happens on the device, and no images are sent to Google.  <\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s powered by a controversial &#8220;Android System SafetyCore&#8221; feature that arrived quietly one day last year without Google explicitly warning users what it does. The feature is essentially an underlying system service that apps can use for on-device content detection.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Also:\u00a0<\/strong><strong>This silent Android feature scans your photos for &#8216;sensitive content&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Google said warnings are off by default for adults, but it&#8217;s one of the first things I check because I don&#8217;t want auto-generated alerts in my personal messages. I also uninstall SafetyCore on my Android phone to prevent it from taking similar actions in other apps.  <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>To check Sensitive Content Warnings,<\/strong> open Google&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/google-messages-settings-i-change-on-new-android-phone-why\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>9 Google Messages settings I change on every new Android phone &#8211; and why https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/google-messages-settings-i-change-on-new-android-phone-why\/&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":270961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/a\/img\/resize\/6dfb1452919bc175f93ced8692a168192eb3f061\/2026\/06\/11\/97cb51d0-523c-49db-8c8f-062142803b9a\/3.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=675&width=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[70],"class_list":["post-270960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-android","tag-google"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270962,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270960\/revisions\/270962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}