SMS has ceased to be a regular way of communicating with other people, as we said yesterday in a note announcing Google's offer of verified SMS. However, they are still applicable to certain machines, which are used for 2-step verification.
In recent days, some users see how their phones are sending this type of SMS to Google without receiving prior notice. They have appeared on the SMS sent and many have begun to worry about what is happening on their line.
Google explains what happens with these SMSes
On the Google support page there is a detailed article on what kind of SMS was sent to. The short answer is simple: to make sure we are still users of that phone number.
This is important, because it is widely used as a double authentication system, and a person made with our mobile number can access our email accounts or social media.
If you set up a Google Account, you can let Google know your phone number. If you do, we'll make sure the number is yours.
For your own safety, we will do periodic inspections Making sure your phone number is yours. When we search again, we may receive messages from Google or look for outgoing messages to Google. The message can say something like "Google checks the phone number of this device."
The action itself makes sense, but Google should inform the user that this will happen, because within hours of the action (usually) and not something that has been widely posted, it is common for many users to panic.
