‘You’re Telling Me in 2023, You Still Have a ’Droid?’ Why Teens Hate Android Phones
wsj.com
(unpaywalled version on archive.today: https://archive.ph/03cwZ)
Interesting figure that comes out of the article: 87% of US teens prefer iPhones. Also the explanations given aren't quite surprising, I guess it's mostly because of iMessage. Teens will feel like outcasts if they get an Android phone while their friends still use iMessage because of the green bubbles.
It's actually hilarious how we allowed consumerism to take us this far and that we have now peer pressure over smartphones.
“You’re telling me in 2023, you still have a ’Droid? [...] You gotta be at least 50 years old.”
ouch 😔
My entire life I've been reading news that only iPhones are cool, yet my social circles don't care and have never said anything like this. I feel like this is a 'Hello fellow kids' type of investigative journalism, that is a secret apple ad.
I'm also convinced these are really just paid for by Apple ads. I've never seen anyone care about such a thing.
How often are you around teens though? My dad is a high school teacher and his students are always surprised and ask him why he has an Android and not an iPhone.
High school teacher here, and I see this a bit (although I have an iPhone)
I've heard this is an American thing. I'm Canadian, and my kids are teenagers and only one friend they have has an iPhone, the rest are on Android (as are all of my friends now, the last one went over to Android last year)
Yes this is definitely a major American thing. There isn't really anything equivalent to the green bubble shaming outside of America. And I would Hazard a guess that this is also more prevalent in more affluent coastal areas. As well as especially on the West coast. Apple's back yard.
Most tech "news" is paid by the subject of the said news.
Nah. That's North America. iPhones in North America have become a status symbol, you have to be available on iMessage, otherwise they'll contact you by SMS. I know a lot of people in Canada who have no other messaging app (WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, etc.). They only communicate via iMessage.
Eh, that was my highschool experience at least. It was never super serious or anything, like it’s not like I was being bullied lol, but I was regularly teased about it in my friend group.
When I was in highschool, the phone was attached to the wall in the kitchen. Simpler times.
When i was in school, you could throw the phone against a wall and the wall got damaged. Simpler times.
How do you do fellow consumer
Who the fuck calls Android devices "'Droids" unironically? This couldn't have been real teenagers. Not ones from the past decade at the very least.
What you are referring to as droids is in fact Android/Linux, or as I've recently started calling it, Android+Linux.
...
Motorola 👀
guess we can thank TikTok and Snapchat for that?
Psst. Side bar.
I like retro stuff.
Oh my god. I didn't even see that! Lmao
I'm 36, have had windows mobile pocket PCs thru HTCs and eventually Samsung Galaxies, and have absolutely been shamed several times by different friend groups over the last decade plus lfor not having iMessage. It def ramped up in the later 2010s
Can you expand on your experiences? Was the social pressure constant, or just a comment? Do you think it impacted your relationships with your friends?
I have, in my dating life, gotten lightening charging cables to have around the house.
It's never fun to have someone ask you for a charger, you saying "Sure, use the fast charger right there", and not have the lightening cable for their phone. But it's also a catch-22, if you DO have the cable they need then its "Why do you have this cable, you don't have a iphone".
It's like having some spare toothbrushes and women's hygiene stuff just in case someone stays over. You'll score points for being thoughtful, but on the other hand they'll be like: waaait a minute ...
Top iphone tip, heh -
When guests leave little reminders around the house, keep them in labeled zip loc bags, not in a general lost and found bin.
Far less awkward when they ask where their stuff is and you pull out a huge box of jewelry and clothing - "Can you describe your earrings for me?" - never goes down well.
Yeah, much better to go: "What's your name again? Ah Jessica, let's see... Jade, Jane, Jasmine... ah right Jessica, here's your stuff!"
!android@lemmy.world, now also the best place for dating tips.
Personally, I would appreciate the thoughtfulness of it.
"it's an ex girlfriend's" is a good ice breaker.
Apple has a great advertisement department. They are great at pumping such news stories.
I mentioned it in another comment, but this was real in my experience. At least in highschool. It’s not like I was bullied or anything, but I was teased about it quite a bit and honestly it made me want to switch to iPhone just to fit in.
"This unbiased and purely informative piece of journalism sponsored by Apple."
Only in theaters July 21st. 😊
Theater at home early with Apple TV+ Ultra!
No one gives a shit which phone you have.
Also, no one uses the term “droid”.
This article reads like “fellow kids” nonsense.
In high school, they absolutely do.
Like, the epitome of the high school experience is social peer pressure about dumb shit.
And this can have a huge effect on the market in 5 years time.
this must be a us thing, I'd say over half the people have in Ireland have iPhones but nobody cares really, if anything my custom rommed Poco f3 has gotten a bit of interest from a few friends
Same. I mean I haven't been to highschool in a little over ten years, so I can't say what kids are using these days. But here in Australia, none of us really cares about what phone you have. Though I think most of us were Samsung users.
as a high schooler (outside of america) my friends mostly have androids, I'm not saying they are better, just saying that they are more common
I got roasted by a room full of interns for having an android phone last week.
Idk what people use. I had two coworkers from another country ask why I don't have an iPhone?
Yeah I could not care less. Seems beyond weird to me. Reminds me of the old video game console arguments in elementary school.
It's always been this way. Some people are just slaves to the brand. "why aren't you using a MacBook instead of that cheap Windows laptop?"
Because the Windows laptop had better hardware, better support for the apps I want to use right now and potential apps in the future, was cheaper, and is easier to repair or expand if I want to in the future.
"But...but....apple said they're the best...."
glance at sidebar
🥲
for those who are out of the loop: https://inv.tux.pizza/watch?v=7nvijQ-L_ms
No, this is real. An iPhone to kids is like a social status symbol and potential family wealth indicator. Of course it's absolute bull, but just as adults are, kids are horribly manipulated by marketing and advertising too. Kids have glommed onto phones for conspicuous consumption whereas adults glom onto cars and houses for said signals.
Of course not all adults or kids do this, but a great deal do. That's where the stupid bumper sticker comes from that says, "He who has the most toys at the end wins!" Very ugly stuff, in my opinion. And if there is a devil, that's where it lives mostly.
I think that is mostly a US thing, as I see way more Androids in Europe than iPhones. But I could be wrong
Yeah, it's definitely a Yank thing.
Yep. Primary chat protocol is still SMS. The general population hasn't latched on to WhatsApp or others like many countries have.
I'd take SMS over Facebook any day.
We like to think that but if you want to reach people who are on Whatsapp you're gonna have to install Whatsapp. And the other way around, if people have a group for whatever (plan a group outing, kids' soccer team, tenants' association etc.) on Whatsapp and one person is not on Whatsapp, tough luck buddy, they get left out.
Apple framed it as an "iPhone vs Android" issue for their own reasons but the larger issue (social network peer pressure) is very much a thing in Europe too.
And it's so outdated too. The iPhone was a "cool" status symbol in like 2010 and 2014. Not so much when everyone has them.
100%, I've lived both in the US and Europe, and Androids are definitely more prevalent in Europe than in the US.
Judging by the amount of times I hear the same ringtone as mine, I think where I live in the UK is about 70-80% Samsung Android phones.
I live in Brazil and don't know many people with iPhones, most have Android phones
I think the most frustrating part is Apple is willfully hampering the ability to intercommunicate between iPhones and Androids and people aren't like "Oh, fuck them for doing that", they're like "Oh, Android sucks." Like it's just a wildly successful and incredibly scummy tactic to convince people that Apple devices are superior and people didn't just fall for it, they're willfully diving in headfirst.
It's a shame, really, because I do think they make some pretty good hardware. Might not be my thing, but they make a good phone. That said, I'll never patronize them because of the bullshit I've had to endure trying to communicate with my iPhone-owning family.
i've only ever heard about this "green bubble" thing from USA media.
do Americans still use SMS?
why? phone numbers are obsolete. my SMS inbox going back years is just 2FA security codes, and they're very rare these days, since authenticator apps.
Yeah sms ought to be the standard default. Since companies like apple refused to help improve it, people like you turn to other solutions. If you use WhatsApp, you should know Facebook owns it and uses it to spy on you for profit. I'd prefer "obsolete" sms to that...
RCS should be the default. SMS is the protocol designed for old non smart cellphones.
The exact problem is that Apple DOES default to SMS outside of imessage
You're right.. but isn't RCS designed to be a superset of sms, with sms being a fallback for old clients on the other end? Really I meant "there should be a standard text protocol for all devices" which is what sms was originally, it just lacked all but the most basic of features.
They will have to open up in 2024. Thanks to the EU.
Yes! I've been saying this for many years, but my Apple cult-member friends don't want to believe me. It's gotten better over the years, but Apple used to be so incompatible with everything else, almost like it was done on purpose to force more market share....🤔
Teenagers are well known for their experience and insight
Holy fuck, kids are cringe. I hate this blue bubble elitism so much. Glad it's not a really a thing in Europe.
According to my 16 yo daughter it most certainly is a thing in the EU. She would never buy an android.
According to my 12 yo son iPhone's are for dumb people. I'm not sure if that's really his opinion or he just says it to annoy his big sister.
I'm in Europe and see the opposite of the article. Xiaomi (incl. Poco and Redmi), Samsung (the Z flip is popular here), Pixel (is pretty popular too) and others are everywhere. People rely on third party apps in Europe so the phone doesn't really matter anymore.
It's OK, American kids have a lot to deal with: school shootings, adults that don't give a fuck about the youth and actively shut doors to a better life with their dying breath, climate change, more diseases, and more. I can understand them being a little bitchy.
I only learned about this green bubble thing in the last year or two. The dominant messaging app here is WhatsApp, which has its own issues, but this bizarre smartphone war isn't one of them.
Still, anything can be a war to kids. God knows how long I spent as a teenager arguing with friends about PS2 vs Xbox, as if we could really see what effect the tech specs had. Just nonsense.
For whatever reason the US never moved on from SMS... and Apple took advantage of that.
This news just in: teenagers can be arseholes to each other.
Back in my day, it was over the brand of sneakers or jeans that you wore.
My little brother refused to wear his new air walks to school any more because the kids told him they weren't real because the style he had used a lowercase a logo. Same energy.
Back in the mid 90's, Nike had the Air Modify Force / Air Adjust Force (can't remember which they were at the time) and the shoes came with a changeable strap with the Nike logo and came in a bunch of colors. You could buy just the strap and change one of the accent colors of your shoes, basically.
Poor dude in middle school got busted for putting that strap over off-brand shoes and they dragged him the rest of the year over that shit.
I'm 14 and I hate iphones I prefer Android phones rooted with a custom rom
By the time you're 20 you'll be using Arch Linux and self-hosting everything!
This is the way to go, kid
We'll be watching your career with great interest
This one here is promising!
I'm 2 and I use a smartphone that only executes Fortran through punch cards.
Nice, the world will try to conform you but never give in! You choose what you want to do.
I'm amazed it's 2023 and we've still not universally adopted a protocol better than SMS. Thanks Apple
We have all universally adopted Rich Communication Services, which is an open standard.
Well, except for Apple. They haven't adopted it.
Apple's refusal to cooperate is both obviously profit motivated and infuriating. They've engineered this social gulf between iPhone and non-iPhone users. I often wonder about the collective social harm.
The low res photos and video are natural byproducts of squeezing modern media into an SMS message, but the 'green' bubbles take it to another level. The worst part is that the average iPhone user at best is apathetic. Meanwhile Cook suggested last year that we should just buy more iPhones as a solution.
Crossing my fingers that the eu æaq that forces 3rd party app stores etc, on iphones, can fix it
Me too. I'm glad the EU is out there thinking about these things.
In 2024 Apple and Google will have to figure it out because the EU are twisting their arms.
It's 2023. Why use SMS in the first place? The world except the US has moved on years ago.
Because open standards that don't require specialized software have many advantages.. Why would you prefer proprietary software in the first place?
SMS > Facebook
This has to be a US thing, in Switzerland there is not a single person I communicate with using iMessage. It’s WhatsApp or Signal.
It is a US thing. It sucks.
Indeed a US thing, Brazilian here
And a little telegram.
They'll also say they're too smart to be affected by advertising.
*Why American Teen Hate Android Phones
Also I'm very glad how Lemmy is a lot less US defaultism than Reddit is. It's pretty tiring having to constantly hear about Democrats vs Republicans, or green bubbles, or Nissan cars bad, you get the point.
Sighs of relief in European
Nissan cars bad? Is that a common US complaint? The others I hear all the time (as an American myself).
As someone in the US, 100% agree.
I am a teen and I love android becuase it give me freedom I can do whatever I want to do by rooting or installing Custom ROM. Also It's Privacy Focused(degoogled my Tab + Root). Other Teenager don't know shit about privacy and FLOSS fuck them I don't care.
Same boat here, no one else in my school cares about their privacy. They take everything for granted. They only see the surface level of the world around them.
I would never daily drive an iPhone. Or use any of the social medias they use. Or vape, vaping is a big one here in the UK.
I do think you're a bit too hostile there though, it's important we voice our concerns and not just lose all hope for them, even if they are hostile towards us.
That fuck them mentality won't get you anywhere. Your phone is a communications device. You need others to be using free protocols and software, otherwise your phone will be useless.
Honestly, I have found teens using iOS to be more tech illiterate. Like they dont know about Piracy, Ad-blockers and stuff. Crazily believe that apple IS privacy friendly and shit like that.
These kids have been ready-made by apple to be corporate friendly. A whole generation that can't do anything if it isn't installed by the app store. Think how useful that is for corporations.
Even worse, my iOS-using teenagers know nothing about online privacy at all! Despite me paying for a family account with Bitwarden, they still use the same bloody password on all their accounts.
Waiting for the next credential stuffing attack to breach their Shit Tok account. Maybe then they'll listen to me...
Big problem with modern software is where you aggrogate diffrent 'views' of data without making it clear what your looking at, mom gets confused where her documents run off to when they disappear from 'recently used'. Dont know how it works and it controls you.
Yup. They dont bat an eye when posting so much info about them on Social Media and scream privacy.
Ah yes, news so US centric I can't even understand what's the point being made in the article, that's what I didn't miss from reddit.
It's not even US centric, it's US rich kid fashion centric. So complete hogwash and it will change in a couple years purely because old is bad.
I read the article and still can't find a real point to it myself, so you're not alone.
I know a 46 year old man who constantly complains about green bubbles in group texts. He doesn't seem to realize that it's his phone that isn't following a standard and instead has chosen to refuse the RCS standard and lock him into proprietary bullshit.
Even worse. Over a decade ago, Google offered to integrate with their protocol for a shared improved user experience. Apple forbid it.
It's not laziness on their part, or "better features" because they get to have control. They literally want the poor user experience to encourage just this kind of bullying.
Funny thing is that Google does the same thing all the time. Back when Microsoft released Windows phone, they had made a few really amazing apps. One of them was their email app. Google went out of their way to ensure Gmail would never work on it past the basic functions of reading and sending email. They also pretty much forbid YouTube from working on windows phones.
The email thing stuck out the most because Google announced they were dropping support to whatever protocol Microsoft was using to communicate with Gmail servers, then Microsoft announced they would use a different protocol and next week Google went "oh right we are also dropping support for this other protocol".
Sheep come in many age groups. I have an iphone for work, and I have turned off iMessage.
"why don't you have an iPhone?"
"I do, unfortunately. But turned iMessage off because it's shit."
"But now your messages come in green bubbles. It's annoying!"
"Send your message in Teams"
"On android phones you can get different messaging apps, and on some of those apps you can change the color of the text bubbles (both send and receive) to suit your needs. If the color is really an issue for you, just change it! Oh iPhones can't do that? Shame.."
Yup. And one that randomly assigns a color for each chat. It's nice.
Why do you know this person? Seems like you shouldn't have to listen to anything he has to say anymore...
Not an American and couldn't care less about the scene there lmao the rest of the world uses Android
Except wannabe Americans
Is this US specific? Because plenty of people (kids included) use Android in our country. Samsung is the most popular I think.
It is very US specific. There are other countries where ios have a majority market share, but in most countries the majority market share is android.
A bit like that here in UK. My job includes asking up to 150 people per day to switch off their phones. They are all late teens to middle aged. Majority are teens/early twenties. iPhones are by far the majority for younger British people. Others tend to be Samsung, Oppo or One+.
I think its a fashion statement thing, and don't forget the teens probably have their bill paid by their parents.
Found the answer:
I'm in the US with an Android and have never actually encountered this, only heard about kids bitching about it. Adults definitely don't give a shit. It's very childish behavior.
I believe the United States are Apple's biggest market.
Yep, iPhones are not a big thing outside the US in my experience. They did not even cross 20℅ market share global until a couple years ago.
yeah this must be very american specific. most people here cant afford iphones and dont care enough over a stupid color. theres a lot of people who also swear by some android brands like samsung.
Those teenagers are the victim of a failing educational system because they're clearly idiots.
Why would I care what teens think? Android gives me more control over my phone.
I don't think you're supposed to have your opinion swayed by what teens think but it is important to know what they think because they reflect future trends and ideals.
Honestly fuck that "blue bubble" entitlement.
I love it, I mention how I saved so much from not buying meme phones that I bought a motorcycle.
I'mm just glad that it doesn't spread outside America lol. Fuck that bullshit.
The people who actually care more about what phone their friends are using enough to peer pressure them into getting a phone of a specific brand or model are about as dense as a black hole and about as smart as a bag of rocks.
Exactly. But that's the issue with everything these days.
People look down on you for all manner of things. Car clothes hair dog, job accent speech everything.
Vain is thy name. Get a grip of your life. Nobody should care.
If I don't infringe on your life then what I do should have no impact upon yours.
Are there supposed to be commas between those words? OR is Car clothes hair dog and job accent speech everything some new hip cool thing I don't know about?
Man hook hand car door?!
Look, I'm cheap, and I'm not swayed by Apple's smug, trendy marketing horse shit. Remember "I'm an Apple, and I'm a PC?" Who didn't want to punch that smug Apple guy in the face?
But sure, whatever. You fetuses go ahead and cling to Apple because you're told to do it with slick ad campaigns. We all fell for it too... once. Then we realized we were paying for those ads with the Apple tax, and we found better things to do with our money than subsidize paranoid Orwell fantasies and thirty second music videos.
Never owned an apple product. And never will. It's total rubbish.
@AlmightySnoo
I see this from another angle. The 99% average people using stuff like this and judging people based on the color of a txt bubble simply are not worth hanging with. I mean the whole reason I use Lemmy and mastodon and not the platforms that the 99% use is for this reason. Let your honest choices filter the crap from your life.
It's a pretty good filter. Anyone who cares about the color of text bubbles is not worth talking to.
As a rule, kids are fucking stupid. A 38 year old who cares about chat bubbles you can pretty safely dump into a ditch. A 9 year old can still be redeemed. Also, kids need an opportunity to make mistakes and learn for themselves who they want to spend time with.
It's more about the early 20s people I may or may not interact with.
Had a potential tinder date mention bubble color. That saved me an evening of finding out how stupid they were.
I feel exactly the same but it's 20 some years since I was a teenager and for most of that time I was an idiot. Not an apple idiot but an idiot just the same.
I stay with Android partially for this. All the irrelevant people exclude me from their iMessage group chats, and consequently, leaving me out of the gossips and drama.
Nobody in my circle cares about the color of the chat bubbles. Those who want to talk to you, and are worth talking to, don't care.
I really question this supposed study by an advertisement company
Didn't catch that, honestly, Who paid WSJ to make or let slip thru the editors, this artical.
It's not the kids, the parents in my extended family all prefer iPhone's because they can't figure android out. They passed this on to their kids.
I'd be curious to know what they can't figure out with Android.
I use both on a daily basis and there's a severe lack of differentiation in experience nowadays. Both have icon based launchers, both have similar looking control centres, both have long form lists for settings pages, both have identical payments experiences, and so on.
They've stolen each other's features liberally to the point where the only real differences are in the gnarly platform specific stuff that no one really touches unless they're a super user and are mostly hidden away in settings screens.
Notifications are a bit different I guess, but even that's a stretch.
I want to point out two things: beyond the first OS versions, the majority of design theft was by apple. Also, iOS is unintuitive AF imo. It's not even close for me. If there's something I can't figure out on android, it's typically a weird settings organizational issue I can Google in a few seconds. On iOS, the UI feels like it was designed by someone who never uses a phone like a normal person and hides or removes super common options. I feel gross trying to use an iPhone. Like I'm in a padded room with the electrical outlets covered or some shit.
Why the FUCK does the iphone not have a fucking BACK button? I have to search around to find the right button to hit to go back? Because it's different in every page in every app, sometimes it's "cancel", sometimes it's not even a button, I have to swipe down the keyboard or something. Fucking ridiculous, I hate iOS.
It's 2023 get a fucking back button.
I'm so with you. Tiny shit you take for granted on android is like pulling teeth on that bullshit OS
It's US only so it doesn't matter to the rest of the world. I don't understand how it became like that there.
They marketed iMessage so well, while the rest of the world adopted apps like WhatsApp, Line or Telegram. In part because of iMessage, they never really adopted any of those at the same rate. I damn glad that's not a thing in Europe, I'd lose it if I had to use an iPhone. Good phones all right, but I'm just so used to the little tweaks of Android.
Kinda hard when half your mates are unpaid ambassadors for said brand
Get better friends who care more about you than your brand choices.
You guys have friends?
It seems we've come full circle. I remember early adverts for Android phones showing a line outside an Apple store waiting for the latest iPhone. An older couple ask the youngsters in front of them if they're excited and they reply "oh no, it's not for us .. it's for our parents. We use Android".
I was there Gandalf, I was there 1000 years ago when you had to install itunes and there was no copy/paste
Kids are dumb
I remember when multitasking was a huge deal when it was first added
... to the original Macintosh! Yes, I am that old.
I truly do not understand how so many people still fall for apple's pr strat. It's almost like a cult for some, when there's been competition in the premium market segment for over a decade now, that offers products that are at least as good as apple's...
Yeah they like beats too
Nah beats by dre is old school now. They just use airpods now.
The new Beats stuff actually gets reviewed pretty well now. Not that it qualifies as a hifi experience for the price, but it's at least not a complete ripoff anymore.
This is what happens when you succumb to techno AIDS.
But WHY? God I can not understand why someone would willingly use iOS. I have both an Android and iPhone and every time I pick up the iPhone I wonder why anyone would use this willingly.
there are lots of reasons to own an iPhone
there are lots of reasons to own an Android
very weird behavior to make it part of your personality in either direction
US teens are stupid.
Or are just being given slow and aweful low end android phones. IPhones will be faster and better in every way.
It was the same with laptops 10-15 years ago, people were comparing cheap 400USD laptops with 1500USD macbooks and saying thise are better without ever seeing 1000+ USD PC.
It is about money/status and performance too.
I can freely laugh at a colleague with new 1.5k USD macbook with soldered 8GB ram + soldered 512GB SSD while using my three year old thinkpad with 48GB of RAM and 2TB SSD costing the same with upgrades.
There's probably a lot more to this than people realize. My parents definitely did this crap; give you kid the cheapest garbage that you can find them act surprised when they hate it and ask for the more expensive alternative that's nearly guaranteed to actually work.
If you're getting your kid an iPhone then you kinda have to spend for something that's at least barely competent. Android gives you near-infinite ways to cheap out.
My dad did this with me when I asked for a guitar when I was in HS. I got his co-workers crappy classical guitar that was practically made out of plywood. I think I played it for 10 minutes. Fast forward over 20 years later and I own over 10 different good guitars (after a few years of not playing at all, don’t give him credit for that lol 😃)
This is probably it. iPhones all meet Apples standards but low end Android devices can be true garbage.
It's like having a shitty netbook and swearing off Windows as a result.
Always have been. My generation liked Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli.
Idk, these seem to be first world country problems
In rapidly and non rapidly developing countries, we have brands like realmeme(realme), tecnologically braindead(tecno) and xiaomeme(xiaomi) take over
iCrytoSleeps(iPhones) are alright but people here like to be conservative with their money. Ironically they look at good specs since mobile gaming is all the rage here
I personally daily drive a oneplus one, to spite people like the ones mentioned in the post
India?
Imagine taking the wall street journal seriously
Welp, I am the only one in class using Android, so I get some laughs. If I am going to drop Android, it will be for full fledged GNU+Linux phone. Postmarket OS already officially supports Android apps via Waydroid.
I don't see how I'd use something as restrictive as iOS. Not even being able to sideload apps without jailbreak, so Apple decides what you install.
There's so much stuff I'd miss, I'd feel like using a modern day feature phone.
How is that cool?
Not simping for Apple (I use Android) but you can sideload without jailbreak. You can do it with a free Apple dev account or with Sideloadly.
I think it speaks volumes about Apple that some people's knowledge about iPhones is based on years old info and negative experiences. Not that it matters to them.
Edit: for clarification, I think the fact you have to jump through hoops to put software on hardware you own is bullshit
Perfect timing for this
Apple propaganda"journalism," as Apple is releasing another phone and have openly stated they don't expect it to sell well.Great clickbait title from them. This is a US / NA specific issue and thankfully isn't fully reflective everywhere else
Marketing, and the fact that phones are now super boring, everything is web based, there's no more cool apps, everything is just a frontend for some web service, or a damn webview.
The historical feature gap between Androids and iPhones is mostly gone, and since the tech doesn't matter anymore, marketing can go a long way.
The article is also very us centric, in places where cost matters more, the iPhone is seen as a status symbol, just like every other thing that costs a lot for no reason.
I dont really like android. Symbian and even windows phones performed better on inferior hardware. Their weird lifecycle seems to me wasteful and blurs the line between what's running or not. It only became stable once hardware got way better. It's a shame that every other option failed. because the only thing worse than android is an apple controlled environment.
rofls, tell me you don't use android without saying you don't use android. this is a flaming shitburger of a hot take.
This literally translates how dumb kids become by just abstracting everything from them, having little to no digital literacy, having little to no customisation, hands on. Fuck you apple, Fuck you iToddlers
It's not about them being dumb, it's them not caring about the particulars of their platform. Can it play some mobile games? Can it keep them connected to their friends through text and social media? Once it meets those criteria, that's enough.
Then comes the next challenge: social status. Particularly during the teen years, social status is a keen focus and every little thing is part of the equation. iMessage versus SMS and RCS means that an Android user can't tell their peer is an iPhone, but iPhones highlight Android users very obviously. So if either platform might align with social groups, Apple is the one that makes it easy to identify "outsiders" and ostracize them.
So knowing that, fundamentally, both platforms will give them what basic stuff they want in a handheld computer, so they just care about the ability to use the differences to identify "in" versus "out" in every possible way that presents itself. Apple does that most obviously.
Ah great, so Apple won. They have a gynormus mass of imbeciles addicted to a logo. Good to know.
This has been their marketing strategy since the iPod. Also it's the opinion of teenagers, so it really doesn't matter (sorry teenagers reading this, you probably don't have the money to be shaping the decisions of megacorps).
So I've heard this sentiment a lot, and at one point it certainly was true, but are teens still texting these days at all? I swear almost everyone moved to instant messaging over Snapchat, Instagram, Discord, etc.
Anecdote: The local high school I see nearly no one using the built in text messaging system. WhatsApp is the thing I see most often. Quite a few use Signal.
I have even heard once that, "You use iMessage to text your parents or your FBI agent."
So you may be on to something. But obvious YMMV in general.
Some of them at least known what's up and got the attitude to express it! Love it!
The article is obviously about US teens. In Europe it does indeed feel out of touch.
From these stats it seems 17% of US adults use iMessage. Also from Android Authority:
Mom, I'm tired of having software choices! I need to be locked into an ecosystem immediately!!
You are assuming they know about and care about those issues. The teens in my life don't care.
You are assuming I should be taken at face value :)
You're telling me in 2023, kids are using "Droid" again to refer to Android?
I hadn't heard that since they literally first came out.
Also, this isn't surprising. It was assumed that younger generations, those growing up with PCs, Tablets, Smartphones, etc, would become inherently skilled with their use. Turns out that was entirely false because it also turns out people don't want to learn what they aren't interested in. So if you don't care about anything more than TikTok, Insta, and Snapchat, then you don't learn anything more than what is necessary to operate them. And Apple makes this very easy in terms of not needing to relearn even an iota between their models. Android cannot say the same.
Kids are dumb
I love ruining your group chats!
They must love having to ask their parents for a new phone every couple of years because they can't install apps due to their phone being out of date
Apple has much better support for their phones, you can get iOS 17 on Xr which was released in 2018. On the other hand pixel 3 which was also released in 2018 lost official support with android 12 but of course in android you could just flash a custom rom and call it a day. So I don't think it's fair to say you need to upgrade every "couple" of years given the average user probably upgrades every 3-4 years regardless if they use iOS or Android.
My kids both have android phones (cheap ones) and if they demanded iPhones I'd tell them to gtfo. But my kids aren't brats and are content with their phones they have - cheap Samsungs - that are capable of running all the crap they're into - Tiktok, Snapchat, Whatsapp etc. Why would they even need anything more powerful?
Maybe there are private schools where phone snobbery is a thing and rich parents indulge their brats every desire. Maybe in that environment an iPhone holds an allure that an Android cannot match. But there are plenty of weird premium Android phones - flip phones, folding phones etc. so maybe that is nonsense too. If I were a spoiled brat with rich parents I might be demanding mommy & daddy buy me a Z Fold to show off. If my parents were super rich I might be demanding they get me a designer phone like a Vertu.
Just idiots applying peer pressure to get others down to their level.
Idk man, I'm 18 and lovin my modded Galaxy A52S. It can do everything an iphone can and even more, for a fifth of the price...
Modded? Tell me more i also have one :>
Nothing makes me cringe more than kids who buy an Apple device and pretend they own it.
The lion is not concerned by the opinion of a sheep.
I saw a young American tech YouTuber, he would get an old iphone SE as a backup phone just so he could use iMessage with his friends. I'm not judging though, i think iPhones are nice devices just very limited.
I hate iPhones, teaches people to be slaves to their surroundings
It's nuts to me that teens use iMessage and not something secure they can hide from their parents.
Status symbol VS smartphone, a phone isn't smart if you can't sideload apps or flash a custom rom.
My stepson announced that he was going to save money to buy an iphone, and these are incredibly expensive in Brazil. We don't even have that blue/green bubble nonsense here, because everyone uses whatsapp and teens use discord or twitch or whatever when they're on their pcs.
Anyway, we give him a 50bucks allowance per month, so I said ok, good luck saving your lunch money for two years to get one if you want it so badly.
Phones have gotten to the point now where switching to an iPhone would be an inconvenience since I'm somewhat bought into the android ecosystem, but other than that, I genuinely wouldn't care that much. It's amazing how little there is between them now.
My little brother has an Android (like the rest of my family) and he hates it. For the longest time he has been begging for an iPhone.
Does he hate it because it’s a cheap phone or because it’s not cool?
Mostly because it's a cheap phone, but I also think it's because Android is percieved as "uncool" by his peers.
Sometimes his old phone would glitch out occasionally and he'd say stuff like "This wouldn't have happened if I had an iPhone!"
You can get a cheap android (but don't have to). You can't get a cheap iPhone.
And are you really going to get your 12 year old the latest flagship android when there are cheaper options?
If every android kid got the latest Pixel, I bet they wouldn't be seen as "the cheap phone".
Plus Apple's been pushing nearly every anticompeitive angle they can. The iMessage thing is 100% intentional. It's not that the android phones aren't capable of working with iMessage. It's that Apple wants to make your experience worse when something happens that doesn't involve giving them money. Because they want you to push your friends into an iPhone, and people are dumb enough to fall for it.
I'm in my early 20's and I just changed my iPhone for a Pixel, actually. Got fed up with a lot of the Apple crap, and the Pixel looked sick. Then again, I'm not American and I don't use SMS anymore, so no one I talk to would ever know what OS I'm using.
The fact that Americans still use SMS is fucking bizarre. It's like the Japanese still using fax in this day and age for some reason
I just dont want to see any ads on my phone. I can't control a iPhone, but on android with f-droid I can see zero ads, newpipe, mull with ublock origin.....
I'd even say that Apple targeted teens from the start, because we all remember when we were all kids how those little details mattered and how kids can be really horrible to each other about that. Them including a social differentiator inside a texting app is just evil.
Apple is the company who gave all the elementary schools free computers in exchange for putting their advertising posters up in.the hallways.
It was fully intentional.
I didn't realize how big of a deal iMessage was until I spoke to a few US iPhone users. They make such a big deal out of it. Completely surprised me.
Looking at the kids I know, I think this is definitely one of the reasons they moved to iphones. A second line cheap android is basically a free phone, which is perfect for the first phone for emergencies and such as a kid. They break or lose it, it doesnt really matter. But the experience of having a crappy phone sticks with them and they want to move up to a "real" phone, which means "away from android". Then all the kids get iphones about the time being in contact with friends is important, and suddenly imessage can tell you who is still using the "cheap phone".
Which Android does he have? I do see this happen a bunch, a kid will have a bottom of the barrel cheap Android phone (you don't have cheap options of iphones) and hate Android, not the fact that it's a budget $100 phone. Get him a note 23 ultra and he won't have those issues. Then he can show off the spen features iphones will never have
Not sure exactly what model it is, but it's definitely a Motorola phone.
Maybe if he had a Pixel he'd appreciate Android more.
I think a highish end Samsung phone is also a great experience.
I recently switched from Pixel -> Samsung -> iPhone. I think the iPhone might be the worst outside of battery life.
This another factor why kids lean to iphone. Their parents buy them the shitty $100 android phone from the carrier store. Compared to a $1000 iPhone, it sucks pretty bad.
Install YouTube ReVanced, Firefox with adblocker and Emulators+Roms and if he still hates it disown his ass cuz I don't know what to say. For me iOS is not an option.
Apple just has good marketing honestly, growing up it was pretty rare to give out your number so I message wasn't really a thing. The main driver honestly is marketing. Androids are seen as cheap, iphones are seen as rich. The UI is sleek and magical. The ecosystem just works, and services like airdrop are ubiquitous. I fear we might see all major flagship players step out of the US as gen z gets older and android being branded in the US as exclusively budget and IOT.
Also I don't think teens see a flagship that often honestly, like a galaxy S23 Ultra would likely not get any hate until they joined a group chat
Exactly, we are looking at teenage kids. They all inherit old iPhones hand me downs or cheap refurbish. A 15y.o. girl in the article brags that she uses an iPhone 11 because that's what all her friends have. That phone has hold up pretty well and is a capable texting, photo and phone call machine. But any ~$300 Samsung will give it a run for its money. This is just marketing brain rot to which kids are far more susceptible than adults.
I own a Pixel 7 but I hate that you always have to reach a compromise on something. This time it's the SOC. The Tensor G2 is a toaster. I looked for the Galaxy S23 and it has camera issues with shutter lag.
I feel you on this. Might consider switching to iPhone once they switch to USB C for charging.
Every single pixel I've owned came with a problem or two especially when it comes to hardware.
Samsung on the other hand, has great hardware but once 2 years is up and software support ends, it feels outdated in software
Interesting. I've owned a Pixel 3, 4a-5G and a 7 and have had no hardware issues, even side loading unsigned software and stuff (e.g. hacked version of Samsung health for the Watch 4).
I don’t think it truly matters what phone you use so long as you’re satisfied with it.
I started with a Nokia and migrated to the galaxy s2 then a HTC. After some time I switched over to an iPhone 5 and then spent a couple years with a middle of the road android who’s brand I have not even committed to memory. My current is an iPhone 11 which I’m pleased with.
All this to say, I think there’s weird cultism around the android ecosystem that is, to me, offputting. Wave your flag with pride sure, but no need to poo poo someone else’s yum all the while.
Edit: I just looked at what community I commented in…
That's when you give them a flip phone then see how they feel about the android when they earn it back.
Because flaunting your smug and condescending sense of superiority using outdated technology will really get your point across to disaffected teens.
How about we let that mindset die with the boomer generation?
iToddlers are liked by kids. News at 11
I don't think that's applicable to Germany for example. We have plenty Android-Phones here and ppl aren't using iMesage really.
In Spain nobody uses SMS since 2010's (or iMessage), IM's go mostly on WhatsApp and lately some Telegram
Article bought to you by Apple™️
I wonder what the numbers are for the rest of the world. it seems to me that Androids are much more popular at the far reaches of the EU e.g.
They are overwhelmingly Android, globally. This is some status thing for Americans it seems.
Teenagers are well known to do everything differently in a way of rebellion to the majority. So, the majority has Android phone. Right!
No one give a shit about iMessage. I've watched my kids exclusively communicate with their friends via Snapchat and discord.
Get a job, earn money, then you can have your Iphone
Just a note to all you can do the same thing with web.archive.org since archive.today (and all its associated other TLDs) is clearly doing with your info. They purposely won't respond to CloudFlare DNS requests because CloudFlare doesn't release extra information about you. The Archive owner released some half-assed story about per-country requirements, but DNS is the worst way to enforce that programmatically. So there is something shady there. Archive.today is shady in regards to your privacy. So if you're using CloudFlare DNS, you'll just get repeated captcha's because Archive.today doesn't follow correct DNS standards.
I'm of course open to edit and put a better alternative to archive.today, but web.archive.org doesn't bypass paywalls, all it does is archiving, it won't try all the things archive.today does like rendering the page inside a headless browser with some JavaScript disabled.