WhatsApp introduces new scam alert feature for users

WhatsApp is introducing a new feature designed to help protect users from potential scams. WhatsApp is frequently used by various individuals to carry out fraudulent activities. The feature was first reported in June 2026 and has now been introduced in a new beta version for Android devices.

The feature called “Scam Alert” is intended to provide users with an additional warning about messages sent by unknown contacts, according to a report by WABetaInfo.

How will feature work?

In such cases, the warning will appear directly within the chat allowing users to decide how they want to respond to the message. The feature will not automatically intervene during a suspected scam attempt.

Instead, it will provide information to help users assess potential risks. Users will be able to decide whether to block and report the sender or trust the chat.

According to the report, the primary purpose of the feature is to warn users at an early stage about potentially fraudulent messages. Users will have to enable the feature themselves as it will not be activated by default.

On Android devices, users can enable it by going to WhatsApp Settings → Account and turning on the relevant option. Meta explained in a blog post a few weeks ago that this is an optional new feature that uses an on-device machine-learning model to alert users about potentially fraudulent messages.

This means that potential scam messages will be analyzed directly on the smartphone and their content will not be transferred to the company’s servers. This approach is intended to ensure that messages continue to receive the protection of end-to-end encryption.

WhatsApp is also using similar technology for its voice-message transcription feature. As mentioned above, the feature has so far appeared in a beta version. Therefore, it is still unclear when WhatsApp will make it available to all users.