Google Messages Is Testing a Spam-Blocking Activity Banner [APK Teardown]

Google Messages is preparing to make its spam protection more visible. A new activity banner designed for the app’s home screen will tell you how many spam messages have been blocked recently, while providing a direct link to view them.

Now, a teardown of the latest Google Messages open beta reveals the text and controls Google has created for this banner. We found the additions in messages.android_20260824_01_RC01.phone.openbeta_dynamic.

The banner highlights recently blocked spam

The main new string defines a banner that reports the number of spam messages Google Messages has blocked recently. Its text changes between singular and plural forms, allowing it to show either “1 spam message blocked recently” or the corresponding message for a larger count.

The count should make the app’s spam filtering activity easier to notice from the home screen. Instead of leaving that work entirely in the background, the banner gives you a concise record of recent blocking activity.

The new strings, seen below, point to the banner and its accompanying controls:

You can view the messages or dismiss the banner

The banner is built around two straightforward actions. “View” provides the route into the relevant messages, while “Dismiss” lets you remove the activity notice from the home screen.

The banner text itself also contains a linked “View” label. Alongside the separate view-button string and the “Spam & blocked” activity title, that code connects the recent-blocking summary with the app’s destination for spam and blocked conversations.

We could not surface the banner in the app. The code nevertheless clearly lays out its message-count wording, its view action, its dismiss control, and the name of the destination associated with the blocked messages.

The spam-blocking activity banner is not available to users yet, and we’ll watch future Google Messages builds for its rollout.

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