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  • Adam Greenfieldadamgreenfield@social.coop
    Aug 11, 2026, 1:45 PM

    Not that Apple is particularly great either, but I will single them out for heavily qualified praise. Stock Android phones are so much worse for older folks – I had no idea. *So* much worse.

    Factor in the absolute necessity to stay on top of OS upgrades – which is not, to begin with, a concept most of the people I work with really understand – and I have no hesitation in arguing that Android devices are not fit for purpose so far as elderly users are concerned.

    ETA: *Do not purchase Android devices for your parents or elderly friends, relatives or loved ones* unless you are either certain they are familiar with industry conventions or are prepared to do regular, close-grained tech support.

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Replies

  • Adam Greenfieldadamgreenfield@social.coop
    Aug 11, 2026, 2:06 PM

    Here are two real examples from today that might help illustrate some of what I mean:

    – A woman in her seventies, intelligent, reasonably proficient but definitely a non-native English speaker, terrified that the official Apple notification to update iOS (which appears next to Settings, as a number in red circle) was an attempt to scam her.

    – A woman in her sixties, intelligent, also an ESL speaker, though with perhaps somewhat less proficiency, who thought she needed to download the Instagram, Facebook and TikTok apps in order to see the links her “friends” sent her. (That most of those links seemed to me to be various forms of fearbait slop I considered to be beyond the scope of my legitimate ability to address. She’s a grown woman, can make her own choices, etc.; she’s just not conversant with the tacit conventions that are obvious to virtually all UI designers.)

    I spent ten or fifteen minutes with each of them, and most of that was reassuring them.
    : . |

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  • Adam Greenfieldadamgreenfield@social.coop
    Aug 11, 2026, 7:24 PM

    An uncomfortable amount of anger in some of these replies. It’s my fault, and I’m sorry – I shouldn’t have licensed that anger by using the words “furious” or “rage.”

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  • Kool Mo Dikmck@mas.to
    Aug 11, 2026, 2:10 PM

    @adamgreenfield All the older people I do informal support for were quite comfortable with the “old” iOS, creeping featuritis is a real problem. And every year there’s more. I think if they could just have iPhone 5s they’d be ecstatic

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  • Su_GSu_G@aus.social
    Aug 11, 2026, 3:41 PM

    @kmck
    Yes! “creeping featuritis is a real problem” 🔔
    Well described & definitely feels like a disease of modern times. ☹️

    #creepingFeaturitis”

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  • Jeri Danskyjeridansky@sfba.social
    Aug 11, 2026, 5:38 PM

    @kmck @adamgreenfield I relate! I'm in my mid-70s and I like my iPhone SE (third generation) — and I'm dealing with the latest rev of iOS, which made some things worse.

    But I was thinking recently about how, when I got my first iPhone many years ago, everything seemed so intuitive. I played with one in an Apple store before buying, and I could figure everything out! I was so impressed.

    I certainly wouldn't say that now.

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  • raspberrytheraspb@aus.social
    Aug 11, 2026, 11:48 PM

    @kmck @adamgreenfield its interesting to me that things that do not need changing are changed when things that do need changing are not changed.

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  • like jam or bootlacesidlestate@toot.cat
    Aug 11, 2026, 2:23 PM

    @adamgreenfield

    Except that Instagram most overtly but very often Facebook do drive you to both their apps and at the very least opening an account, even if there's an intent that sends a link that might be coerced to open in a browser.

    Instagram has long earned opproprium for this app-centric pattern.

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  • SteuSteutt@mastodon.uno
    Aug 11, 2026, 3:07 PM

    @adamgreenfield I only use Android, and support 4 over 70 on Android.
    Why should I learn OS?
    Everyone is the best supporter on system he uses.
    So for Android users supporting OS.....

    PS
    Not mentioning the price range availability....
    For mid low end device.

    PPS
    In my case Samsung helps a lot, standardized!

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  • sussus@timeloop.cafe
    Aug 11, 2026, 3:12 PM

    @adamgreenfield one of the things I’ve noticed that makes it a lot harder for people to use a lot of android phones is that a lot of the android market is devices that are not super high spec and there’s an incredible delay between any gesture or tap you do and what actually happens. And this makes it very hard to ever learn how your phone works. It just feels like nothing happens and then random things happen.

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  • Adam Greenfieldadamgreenfield@social.coop
    Aug 11, 2026, 3:13 PM

    @sus so much this. which would be fine…if they had a feature set calibrated to the chipset driving it.

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  • sussus@timeloop.cafe
    Aug 11, 2026, 3:14 PM

    @adamgreenfield not that folks would need amazing processors or whatever if we wrote software for phones that respected their hardware

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  • Deborah Edwards-Oñororedcrew@mstdn.social
    Aug 11, 2026, 6:10 PM

    @sus @adamgreenfield I've had Android phones for 15+years, as has my husband. Our adult child has an iPhone.

    I've not noticed any delays on the Android phones. Or random things happening.

    I spend as much time providing tech support to both of them for iPhone as I do for Android.

    Both operating systems have their own idiosyncrasies.

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  • sussus@timeloop.cafe
    Aug 11, 2026, 6:47 PM

    @redcrew This absolutely isn't a problem for all android phones, but for the many folks with underpowered hardware relative to the os and apps on their phone, it is absolutely a problem.

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  • 60sRefugee60sRefugee@spacey.space
    Aug 12, 2026, 9:36 PM

    @adamgreenfield There should be a non-reassignable, non-coverable, non-interruptable omnipresent button for "go back to the desktop/ home screen" so wherever in the menu tree you get lost, you can always start over.

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  • Dr. Simonas Kareiva LY2ENsimonas@wtf.lt
    Aug 11, 2026, 8:29 PM

    @adamgreenfield My grandparents, who are 87 and 91 respectively, have made a conscious choice to use a dumbphone for daily usage and only use a touchscreen UI for recreational purposes and non-critical comms.

    They like the Android UX but only to the extent of a toy. They probably have never seen an iphone, probably because I would hate to support the apple's walled garden for them.

    So even a Nokia cannot compete with the random brands that hit the UX jackpot for the elders:

    Image attached toot
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  • David W. Jonesdancingtreefrog@mastodon.social
    Aug 12, 2026, 12:23 AM

    @adamgreenfield Based on experience with my 95-year old mother, and some 80-year old friends...the best phone for really old people is a flip phone. No smart capabilities, button keyboard, answer the phone by opening it up.

    But my mother still wouldn't plug it in, so it was always dead.

    I guess the best phone for a number of people is Ye Olde Land Line phone. At least they always had power.

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  • C++ pays the billsCppGuy@infosec.space
    Aug 12, 2026, 11:03 AM

    @dancingtreefrog @adamgreenfield

    Yeah, the button keyboard is important. Older people often lose their dexterity and physically can't make the gestures that touchscreens demand. That locks them out of smartphone use even if they still have the eyesight and the mental flexibility for it. There are assistive keyboards for computers, but I've not seen anything similar for phones and tablets.

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