Google Scam Detection May Soon Land on vivo Phones

The phone rings. A voice on the other end sounds off. Two seconds later your handset might warn you—if a recent app teardown is to be believed.

Hunting through the latest Phone by Google app, developers uncovered references to an internal codename: Sharpie. That’s Google’s shorthand for Scam Detection, the caller-authentication feature that already nudges Pixel owners and, more recently, Samsung users on Galaxy S26 models when a call looks suspicious.

Teardowns are not official press releases. Still, code leaves tracks. And Sharpie’s presence suggests vivo could be next in line. Which models? No definitive list yet. The X500 family is a likely candidate, and whether older X300 devices will receive a backport remains uncertain.

There’s another wrinkle: implementation. Will vivo graft Scam Detection into its native phone app like Samsung did, or will it ship support by simply adopting the Phone by Google app? Both routes are possible. The former keeps a manufacturer’s UI intact; the latter leans on Google’s ecosystem and faster updates. Regional rollouts and carrier cooperation will also shape when—and where—users actually see the feature.

Beyond convenience, wider availability matters for safety. Spam and scam calls don’t respect brand boundaries. Expanding detection beyond Pixel and Galaxy into mainstream Android brands could blunt a major vector of fraud. Yet users should watch for privacy and permissions details: these systems rely on call metadata and heuristics, and those mechanics vary by implementation and market.

If Google and vivo are moving forward, this would mark a meaningful step in making real-time scam warnings a cross-brand Android feature rather than a Pixel specialty.

For now, treat the teardown as a strong hint rather than a guarantee. Keep your software current and eyes open for official announcements; this is one of those slow-burn features that can show up quietly in an update and suddenly change how you answer the phone.