Google has released a new feature to Google Call Screen and Live TV on Android TV. The company has also announced the Vulnerability Reward Program, where critical vulnerabilities will be rewarded up to $15,000. Moderate severity issues will no longer receive a Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) designation. Betas are still limited to a handful of users and will roll out in the coming weeks.
Google Vulnerability Reward Program
Google has a program where researchers can submit security vulnerabilities they discover on Android. A new system has been added to rate the quality of vulnerability reports. This unique quality rating system is based on the number of details provided in the report and rates them as high, medium, or low. The company encourages researchers to submit more detailed reports to address the issue more quickly. Researchers will receive higher bounty rewards as a result.
This new Vulnerability Reward Program for Android is based on the severity of the vulnerability. Critical vulnerabilities will be rewarded up to $15,000. The company is looking for accurate and detailed descriptions, root cause analyses, proofs-of-concept, reproducibility, and evidence of reachability in reports. Moderate severity issues will no longer receive a CVE designation. If interested, you can check out the Google Public Rule page.
Google releases New Call Screen Beta to Pixel 6 or newer to selected users, updated with reduced robocalls.
Google has started testing its new Call Screen Beta and is rolling it out to some users with Google Pixel 6 or newer devices in the United States. This will allow users to attend incoming calls with Caller Screen. With the update, incoming callers may notice a more natural-sounding series of voice prompts to determine who’s calling and why. The update also includes an update to the Setting UI. The beta version will help Google to improve Call Screen capabilities and reduce robocalls. To set up the Automatic Call Screen, follow these instructions:
- Open the phone app and then tap the triple-dot menu in the top-right corner.
- Tap on Settings and then tap on Call Screen.
- Toggle to enable Automatic Call Screening.
The company still needs to share the details about the new Call Screen, and the feature launch date for everyone has yet to be announced. Beta users can submit their feedback on their experience through the “Help us” button in the Phone by Google app in the recent tab.
With this, you can save transcripts and recordings of screened calls, but you should also know that Call Screen will only sometimes fully understand and transcribe what a caller said. Don’t use Automatic Call Screen if you use Call Forwarding since automatically screened calls won’t be forwarded. It is useful to allow you to screen calls before answering, and it doesn’t use internet connectivity. Users need to enable Call screening in the Phone app, or you can also screen calls manually by tapping on “Screen call” when you receive a call.
Android TV now has Live TV.
Live TV has launched on Android but is limited to the United States. This will allow users to browse free TV channels across multiple providers, organized in one easy-to-use guide in the new Live Tab on your home screen. With the update, the company offers a new experience to make it easy to find and watch Live TV on your Android device.
The Live Tab on Android TV gives users access to free channels from Tubi, Plex, Pluto TV, and Haystack. On top of that, users can also enjoy the free built-in channels from Google TV without downloading or launching an app. In total, more than 800 channels are available, including news channels like NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox. That’s not all; it also has channels worldwide with programming in more than ten languages, including Spanish, Hindi, and Japanese.
However, YouTube TV still needs to be integrated into the Live Tab, but you can use it through the app. You can also save your favorite channels to the top of the guide for quick access, and the guide includes live entertainment recommendations based on your favorite teams, shows, and channels. The new Live TV experience will be rolled out to all Android TV devices in the US over the next few weeks.
