New Galaxy S23 feature promises protection against nasty images

Messaging apps are notorious playgrounds for hackers that target vulnerable people with malware hidden in videos, links, and images. Opening these files can compromise your personal data and can even give bad actors access to your devices. To protect against such threats, the new Galaxy S23 series comes with a feature called Samsung Message Guard.

According to Samsung, the new feature currently works on its the Samsung Messages app as well as Google Messages. It protects against zero-click exploits that take place any time an image is received on your phone. While you might be cautious about opening random attachments, this type of attack doesn’t need you to click on anything. Receiving an image or a file can be enough to give hackers access to your device.

Samsung Message Guard traps all incoming image files when your phone receives them and isolates them from the rest of the device. This prevents malware from gaining access to your phone. These trapped images are then screened bit by bit, and Samsung says it “neutralizes any potential threat hiding in image files before they have a chance to do you any harm.” The task runs in the background and does not need users to activate any special setting.

Currently, the feature works on PNG, JPG/JPEG, GIF, ICO, WEBP, BMP, and WBMP image files.

The best part is that Samsung Message Guard will soon work on images received on third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp as well. Other Galaxy phones and tablets running One UI 5.1 will also get the feature later this year.