I think the reason group chats are gaining is because we are so numbed by all the public platforms. Between doom scrolling and ads noone pays any attention to personal posts anymore.

For me personally I would even go one step further and say that I'm really annoyed by people force-feeding me their peronal life/experiences.

Now they start (ab)using group chats for it:

A group created for organizing rock climbing activities: All of a sudden filled with photos of this summers vacation. OK, we are friends and know each other, but still...

Another one was for a specific training of a mountaineering club, people who just met for this one occasion: Half a year later someone starts posting photos of their latest trip. And then the next, ...

Maybe in my case it's the generation that started sm (lol) with attention seeking extrovert posts that do not get any attention on fb/x anymore, so they go to group chats.

What might still be true for younger people is that with all the noise on the internet a group chat may be a place that gives you a manageable chunk of content with a private touch that makes perosonal involvement worthwile/doable again.

And now let's watch it get abused&destroyed by corporations.

Loved my Pixel 5, but they've gotten too big from there.

Samsung S23! for (and here it gets complicated) about 600$.

Here in .at Samsung has 10% off for new customers and 150€ off if you send in an old phone. If your old phone still has some value you get that on top of it.

So if you have any old phone left over you can get a S23 for 650€ which includes 20% sales tax, in US terms that should equate to about 600$.

Thanks for the tipps! I love how on lemmy privacy is a big concern. Seems I'll have to spend some time getting to know the tools mentioned.

Given that I'm not at all interested in creating a Samsung account and use any of their cloud services what are the the additional featues I would get?

The question wether flips/folds are gimmicky or useful is a very personal one: I.e. for me the foldables seem excessive and flip phones finaly a way to get smaller phones.

good to know!

As much as I like tinkering with stuff I really don't want my phone be something that needs constant attention...

I'm a fan of small phones and as such been waiting for the fold-tech to lead to smaller devices.

Therefore the Razr+ (40 Ultra) and the Flip5 are the first phones to raise my interest since I got my Pixel 5.

I really like the way Moto implemented the external Display but the Flip seems to win in almost any other category.

After reading/watching a lot of reviews I came to the conclusion that (for now) I'll still be better off with a Galaxy S23. Maybe next year...

That's where I think the larger ext. displays on this years flipables could help a lot...