A common phone scam works by talking the victim into dialing a short code that silently forwards their calls, and with them the verification calls a bank or service might place. The third beta of Android 17 QPR2, which Google pushed to Pixel testers on Friday, Aug. 14, goes after that trick at the operating-system level.
Per Google’s release notes, as collected by 9to5Google, Android now parses call-forwarding USSD codes such as *21* when an app sends them through the TelephonyManager.sendUssdRequest() API. Standard apps can no longer run those codes in the background with only the CALL_PHONE permission; blocked attempts get a USSD_ERROR_NOT_ALLOWED callback. Typing the codes by hand still works, with a catch. “To combat social engineering scams, users manually dialing call-forwarding codes in the system dialer will now see a new OS-level confirmation dialog before the command is executed,” the notes say.
Other USSD requests, including mobile-money transfers and account checks, are unaffected. Developers whose apps legitimately set up forwarding and don’t qualify for an exempted role are told to switch to the ACTION_DIAL intent, which pre-fills the dialer and leaves the final tap to the user.
A log for the modem
The bigger security story may still be in development. In an APK teardown, Android Authority found a “SIM security timeline” that keeps a timestamped record of modem-detected events, such as a cell network requesting the phone’s IMEI or IMSI identifiers. It builds on the Mobile Network Security feature Google added in Android 16, whose real-time warnings about unencrypted networks or possible fake base stations were easy to miss once dismissed. Users with more than one SIM can filter the log by card.
A separate SIM security information page lists the encryption ciphers in use for the current connection, and strings in the build point to new alerts for downgrade, imprisonment, denial-of-service, jamming and location-tracking attacks, plus unauthenticated SMS and emergency messages. Teardown features can change or never ship, as TechRepublic noted in its write-up.
The rest of the build
Most of what testers will notice is cosmetic. Android Authority lists a Quick Settings layout editor for rearranging tiles, the brightness slider and media controls; a hue slider with four color styles (Neutral, Soft, Bright and Bold); more blur on the lock screen; and an app handle on foldables for dragging windowed apps between full screen and split screen. Google also fixed a bug where opening the notification shade could corrupt the display and restart the phone, and another that showed false battery-degradation warnings.
The beta covers the Pixel 6a and newer. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are left out, and Android Authority notes both will turn five before QPR2’s stable release, which 9to5Google pegs for December.
WebProNews is an iEntry Publication