Google has taken steps today to ensure Chrome users accessing the web on Android are better protected by turning on Safe Browsing by default. The search giant says Safe Browsing is already enabled on over a billion machines running Chrome on the desktop, which protects users from certain types of malware, phishing attacks, and other cybersecurity threats. Usually, the protection is in the form a bright red webpage indicating that the URL you clicked on may in fact be dangerous.

Prior to today, those warning pages popped up for mobile users only if they turned on Chrome's lesser-known data compression feature in the settings panel. Starting with Chrome version 46, however, the feature is stand-alone and you can verify that it's activated by checking the privacy section in Chrome's settings. (Note that the feature is only turned on by default for Android phones; the data compression feature is available on iOS, so turn that on if you'd like the same protection for your iPhone.) The new Safe Browsing client won't be limited just to web browsing: Google is releasing the feature as part of Google Play Services, meaning it will come to other in-house apps and services in future.