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Instagram is expanding its AI-powered voice effects for DMs to more users, adding new filters to the feature as part of Meta’s FIFA World Cup 2026 push. The update is live on Android and iOS, though Instagram says availability is limited to select countries.

The feature first started rolling out in India in March with eight effects: Chipmunk, Demon, Alien, Robot, Underwater, Stadium, Wobble, and Fishbowl. The wider rollout now brings the total to 15, adding Goal!, Pirate, Autotune, Whisper, Grandpa, Grandma, and Princess to the mix. The Goal! effect is a new addition timed to the FIFA World Cup, and Meta says it triggers a surprise animation when sent.

How it works

To use the feature, tap the voice message button in a DM thread, then tap the new effect button that appears between the delete and send buttons in the bottom bar. First-time users will see a pop-up that reads: “Now you can transform how you sound in voice messages. Choose the perfect voice to make your conversations more memorable.”

The pop-up includes a Meta AI terms disclaimer noting that interactions will be used to improve AI at Meta. When a voice message with an effect is sent, recipients can see which effect was applied and tap on it to use the same one in their reply.

World Cup features across Meta’s apps

The voice effects expansion is part of a broader set of FIFA World Cup features Meta announced across its apps. On Facebook, the company is adding a Football Mode, tournament-themed stickers, and a Live Updates feature for Messenger group chats that surfaces real-time match highlights.

Instagram is also getting an enhanced search experience that surfaces curated tournament content, including Reels, Stories, and posts from official broadcasters and national teams.

TikTok appears to be testing voice calling inside direct messages, a move that could put the short-video app in more direct competition with instant messaging apps like Messenger and WhatsApp. Jonah Manzano on X recently spotted the feature and shared screenshots, including an incoming call notification labeled “TikTok Audio” and a phone icon added to the DM interface.

From voice notes to calls

The feature seemingly works as a standard audio call initiated from within a DM conversation. Based on Manzano’s testing, it requires both users to be friends on the platform before a call can be placed. A “Mute calls” toggle also appears in the DM settings menu alongside the existing “Mute messages” option, suggesting TikTok has built out the necessary notification controls to support the feature.

Martin Scorsese has signed on as a partner and adviser to AI image-generation startup Black Forest Labs, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The caveat is that one of the world’s most famous living directors is using the tech solely for storyboarding.

“For 70 years, I’ve been creating my own storyboards,” he said in a statement to the Times. The tool, he said, helps him communicate his vision to cinematographers and production designers far faster and more efficiently.

Black Forest Labs is a 70-person outfit headquartered not in San Francisco, but in Freiburg, Germany, the closest major city to the actual Black Forest. Despite its unlikely address, the startup powers image features inside Adobe, Canva, Microsoft, and Meta, and was last valued at $3.25 billion by its investors, which include BroadLight Capital, co-founded by Scorsese’s talent manager, Rick Yorn.

Black Forest Labs was founded by the team behind Stable Diffusion and according to Wired, declined to partner with Elon Musk’s xAI in recent months after an earlier collaboration on Grok’s image generator ended amid concerns about the platform’s content safeguards.

You can imagine that some in the entertainment industry will be concerned about the development, even given its limited scope. Still, it’s just the newest sign that Hollywood’s once-fierce resistance to AI is softening.

Yes, advancements in AI help people from different walks of life, but they have some cons. One of the most exploited con has been AI voice cloning. Over the years, it has reached the point where most people can no longer tell a deepfake voice from a real one. 

Scammers already know this, and they’ve been spoofing users’ contacts, cloning their voice, and committing financial frauds for quite some time. Android’s new fake call detection is designed to stop that exact scenario before it costs you.

How does fake call detection actually work?

Fake call detection is an industry-first feature. It identifies when a caller is not who they claim to be, even when the caller ID looks legitimate and the caller’s voice sounds familiar.

Without any action required from you, the feature operates silently in the background. When a contact calls you, and both of you are using Google’s Phone app, the caller’s device sends an encrypted confirmation signal to your device, functioning like a digital handshake, verifying that the call is coming from that person’s phone. 

This handshake is built on end-to-end encrypted RCS technology; the verification is completely private. When a scammer spoofs your contact’s number, the signal will be absent, and your device immediately pings your contact’s actual phone to check whether they are making a call.

Does the feature work for all Android phones?

When their real device confirms it is not making a call, a warning appears on your screen, telling you the call may be fake and that you should immediately hang up. The entire process happens instantly, before the scammer has had a chance to manipulate you.

Fake call detection is enabled by default. It is rolling out globally in Phone by Google this month, starting with Pixel devices, running on Android 12 and above. The only catch is that both the caller and the recipient must be using Phone app and the recipient’s device also needs RCS enabled in Google Messages.