When Grandpa said that the mobile phone was too stuck, Xue Pengfei thought that it was just full of memory, but soon he "grew insightful".
At the moment when the screen was lit, Xue Pengfei saw a fake lock screen interface - a shoddy clean-up software advertising pop-up window, but there was the word "slide unlock" at the bottom. He tried to swipe, only to see a prompt at the bottom of the screen to "Start Downloading."
In the next twenty minutes, Xue Pengfei was in a daze: although he kept clicking on the dots to return to the desktop, the pop-up window advertisement popped up in a few seconds, leaving him unable to perform normal operations.
How the mobile phone came to be like this, Grandpa can't tell. Last year's double eleven, Xue Pengfei bought this thousand yuan Android mobile phone for his grandfather, and before that, his grandfather was using a button old man's machine.
In the next two months, Grandpa learned to use WeChat to make video calls, and Xue Pengfei worked in the field, and the communication with Grandpa became more. But in January, Grandpa began to say that the phone was stuck, and it became difficult to play videos with his family.
These pop-up ads don't have any trigger conditions, and even if the phone desktop is static, there will be ads popping up. On the mobile phone desktop, there are seven or eight suspicious APPS, all of which are "mobile phone cleaning" and "Wifi manager".
In the case of being constantly interrupted by pop-up windows, Xue Pengfei gave up the idea of uninstalling junk software and modifying application permissions, and could only restore the factory settings of the mobile phone.
The mobile phone is occupied by pop-up windows, which not only makes the elderly unable to enjoy the convenience of modern technology, but also worries Xue Pengfei that once an unexpected situation occurs, the basic communication function of the mobile phone will also be affected by the pop-up window that constantly pops up.
Xue Pengfei guessed that Grandpa's mobile phone must have been hit by some terrible virus. When he looked up coping methods online, he found that there were not a few young people who had similar experiences.
Many young people have the experience of helping the elderly to clean up their mobile phones, in addition to helping their families, some people will also encounter the help of strange elderly people, and the problem of mobile phones is similar to what Xue Pengfei saw: junk software in groups, pop-up ads frequently jump out, in the elderly are helpless to press, caught in the vicious circle of accidental download of more software, more pop-up windows, more likely to download by mistake.
Mobile phone pop-up window has become a major stumbling block for the elderly to enjoy technology, even if the "old age mode" intimately makes the elderly's mobile phone font large and the interface is refreshing, but under the cover of pop-up advertising, there is no place for use.
A
Can run weChat and other common programs smoothly, large screen, clear photos, is the elderly when buying a mobile phone will take into account the factors, in addition, the price is also a key consideration. iPhones are too expensive, and inexpensive Android phones have always been the first choice. However, many users will not consider that Android mobile phones will easily become "cheating" artifacts before they see it with their own eyes.
Zhang Chaobing, a technical expert at Beijing Xiaomi Software Technology Co., Ltd., told Alphabet (ID: wujicaijing) that the Android system "is too easy to download applications, and the ecology lacks effective control." ”
Android phone pop-up ads and junk software, young people are not strangers, but they can be quickly adjusted during use.
Weibo blogger @ Kai Kai, who loves music, once blogged that his Xiaomi mobile phone would frequently pop up the pop-up window of an e-commerce platform during use. In this Weibo, he attached a picture, which was the message that his mobile phone received in the lock screen state prompted "1 red envelope to be collected", and at this time he has turned off all the permissions of the APP. Angry, he even ended up tweeting about the Xiaomi system MIUI.
He told alphabet that as an Android system user, he hates the phone's usual "automatic download of software when you mistakenly touch the pop-up window, which is disgusting." ”
Li Tao, who is still in his sophomore year, said that many students will download software because of mistaken touch, but for them, they only need to uninstall it, but it does not affect daily use.
There will also be young people who fight with malware to win: obviously uninstalled but there are still pop-up windows, looking for malware for half a day and finally finding out that it is a transparent icon...
When the same problems occur in the elderly, small troubles become big problems.
Young people find that the "education" of the elderly is almost ineffective, and the advertising and junk software that can be avoided by ordinary users with more care have become psoriasis that cannot be shaken off in the mobile phones of the elderly.
Li Tao himself and his family use Android mobile phones, for the fifty-year-old father, he will say a few more words, but for the grandparents over seventy years old, he chose to help, because "my grandfather is not educated, and he actually forgot about the bricks." ”
Yang Jingjing's grandfather is more than eighty years old and likes to speculate in stocks, so he joined the camp of smart phone users. In recent years, Grandpa has used Android mobile phones, and Yang Jingjing will help him clean up his mobile phone every half a month.
Even so, Grandpa's phone was like an out-of-control magic box. Various pop-up windows cause the phone to lose power very quickly and will suddenly become hot. And sometimes halfway through the call, the ads pop up and the call is interrupted. The most exaggerated thing is that the mobile phone will suddenly jump out of the sound advertisement in the middle of the night, and the sound is loud.
The close button of the pop-up window advertisement is very hidden, and there are often very strong buttons on the page that attract clicks, and Grandpa will press randomly in a hurry. Yang Jingjing tried to communicate with her grandfather, but "how to teach can't be changed." ”
In many cases of the elderly's Android machine becoming a "cheating" artifact, the "educational difficulty" of the elderly also comes from stubbornness.
Or be stubborn and believe what pop-ups say "Your phone is too stuck, come and download it with one click cleanup!" No matter how much the children persuade them, they will still believe it every time they see such a copywriter; or they will simply close themselves off with stubbornness, and Xue Pengfei's grandmother will feel more insecure after seeing her grandfather's mobile phone "crazy".
"Except for WeChat and receiving calls, other functions are not used. Even buying things on Taobao is asking me to help buy them. "Smartphones have become dangerous items in the hands of some elderly people, who would rather be troublesome than easily provoked."
B
Is it really the elderly who need to be educated, not the product itself?
In October last year, Yang Jingjing finally couldn't bear it, gave one of her old iPhone8 Plus to her grandfather, replacing his Android machine that had been stuck again to the point of not being able to use, the latter used for less than a year, the original price of more than 2,000 yuan, has been a mid-range model.
Grandpa's usage habits are the same as before: using the same software to speculate in stocks, watch the news, and use WeChat to contact his family. But after that, Yang Jingjing never helped her grandfather clean up her mobile phone again.
Apple mobile phone download relatively troublesome on the one hand, on the other hand, Yang Jingjing taught Grandpa: when encountering what can not be solved problems, press the following small circle key (home key): "Teach them to use the virtual home button do not know why they often can't click, or the physical is better." ”
At least in the eyes of some consumers, Apple's mobile phone is more "safe" for the elderly.
Apple itself, of course, thinks so. In October 2021, in response to the European and American Committee's digital market action, Apple cited Nokia's threat situation in 2019 and 2020 as reporting that the number of malware on the Android platform was 15 to 47 times that of the iPhone.
At that time, the European Union proposed the Digital Marketplace Act, hoping that Apple would open up users' right to install software freely, including bypassing the App Store, which Apple strongly opposed. Apple pointed out that experts generally believe that iOS is more secure, and one of the important reasons is that Apple does not support bypassing the Apple Store to install software.
The story continued, with Cook even personally calling a Senate member for 40 minutes in January, in which cook spoke strongly against opening up the third-party app market.
On February 3, local time, the US Senate Judiciary Committee deliberated and passed the Open Market Act. The bill does not yet constitute law, and in terms of Apple's current attitude, it will not be forced to make any major changes to the App Store in the short term.
According to Data from January, Apple's market share in the fourth quarter of 2021 reached its historical peak since it entered China in 2009, accounting for a quarter of the total market shipments, up to 25%. Oppo, Honor and Xiaomi, which ranked behind it, all have a market share of 16%.
However, if you want to look at the mobile phone system, the Android system is the absolute king with a share of more than 70%.
Even young people who recognize Apple's system will have some troubles when changing the "camp" for the elderly. For example, the price of Apple's mobile phone is high, and the new machine on sale on the official website is also 3299 yuan, and it is not suitable for the elderly. For many elderly people, the price point on a smartphone is not easy to accept.
As a result, some people have to transition the old models that other people in the family have eliminated to the elderly, or buy second-hand Apple mobile phones in the market, or simply hide the price of mobile phones from the elderly.
Chen Lan, a user experience expert at the Shenzhen Information Accessibility Research Association, told the alphabet list that Apple's mobile phone is not perfect, and in terms of font amplification function alone, in addition to the Pro version of the model, its largest font is still not large enough for many elderly people. Coupled with the variety of product choices of Android mobile phones, low-end Android mobile phones have a high cost performance, and for some elderly people with strong spending power, high-end Android models with high prices and excellent photo performance have become a kind of "social currency". Ageing problems cannot bypass Android phones.
C
Chen Lan introduced that unlike the basic aging transformation of font size and interface optimization, the solution of advertising pop-up windows and junk software problems cannot be achieved by mobile phone software transformation alone.
In response to the PROBLEM OF APP pop-up window, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has made many shots. The centralized rectification in July last year has allowed us to reduce and standardize the open-screen advertisements and in-app pop-ups that we saw in the process of using the APP.
In the scope of adaptation to aging, the measures should be more "thorough". According to the "General Design Specification for Internet Website Ageing" and the "General Design Specification for Mobile Internet Application (APP) Ageing" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the old version of the interface and the separate age-appropriate version of the APP are strictly prohibited from appearing advertising content and plug-ins, nor can advertisements or temporary advertising pop-ups appear randomly.
Completely banning advertising plug-ins, for users is a gratifying thing, the interface is simple, no ads for the elderly version of the APP even attracted the attention of young people, last year there have been a number of media reports "young people pursue the elderly APP" phenomenon, Chen Lan said that even several of his own applications are also using the elderly version.
But for operators, this transformation is full of morality and is a threat to advertising revenue.
Chen Lan introduced that whether it is at home or abroad, due to the characteristics of the Android system, rogue pop-up windows and malware are problems that have not yet been eradicated, which is far from being solved by third-party APP optimization. The ideal state in the future is that mobile phone manufacturers will do more specifications at the system level, so that the entire ecology of the mobile phone system and third-party software can achieve a balance, so that the APP only needs to meet the requirements of the mobile phone system without additional development and maintenance.
As an open source mobile platform operating system, Android's openness has brought great vitality to it, but it has also made it vulnerable. Although the Google Store and the official app stores of major mobile phone manufacturers also have censorship mechanisms and are relatively safe, they do not have an absolute monopoly position like the App Store in iOS.
Mobile phone manufacturers equipped with Android have not worried less about this, and in recent years, major manufacturers have strengthened ecological control.
In 2020, Xiaomi's operating system MIUI12 launched the "Flare" function, allowing users to view the application behavior record, all app permission requests will be seen, and sensitive permissions will be highlighted and reminded. To MIUI13, Xiaomi launched a "pure mode", which will prevent the installation of "blacklisted APPS" after opening. In addition, Huawei has also launched a pure model built around Huawei's app store system, and if the application is more dangerous, it will be banned from installation. However, the current situation shows that these measures have not fundamentally prevented the elderly from suffering from "pop-up window cancer" in mobile phones.
D
Non-intelligent "elderly machines" with single functions are no longer enough, more and more elderly people use smart phones, and mobile phones "suitable for aging" have entered the public eye.
Non-intelligent elderly machines for sale
In December 2020, Liu Liehong, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at a press conference that about 274 million elderly people (over 60 years old) use mobile phones in the mainland, of which about 134 million use smartphones to access the Internet.
134 million, more than the total population of Japan in 2020 (126 million), about twice the total population of the United Kingdom or South Korea (0.67 billion, 0.52 billion).
Among the 10 young people randomly reached by the alphabet list (the average age is under 25 years old), 8 of them have encountered the use of smart phones by strange middle-aged and elderly people for help, including express locker scanning code and detention fee payment, convenience store self-service cashier, map APP navigation use, taxi APP use, phone number plus WeChat friends, etc.
Among the 2 young people who have never encountered such a request for help from strangers, one is a fitness enthusiast who is 178 centimeters tall and weighs 95 kilograms, and he said that few strangers will choose to ask for help.
The internet ageing transformation is still in progress, and substantial progress has been made.
Just this past February 28, Xiao Yaqing, minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced at the press conference of the State Council New Office that last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized 227 websites and APP to complete the transformation, and launched special functions such as font amplification, voice guidance, and one-click direct connection to manual customer service.
Turning your attention to the user's experience, according to the "2021 China Digital Inclusion User Survey Report" jointly released by the International Experience Design Conference (IXDC) and Huawei's UCD Center, among the 1458 valid samples collected (elderly users over 55 years old), the importance of large fonts and large volume is high, and the satisfaction rate is also high; but the functions such as children's remote assistance, exclusive applications for the elderly, and pure and no ads are of high importance and low satisfaction rate.
In addition, harassing ads and malicious links are the biggest problems for older users in the process of using mobile phones or surfing the Internet, with a 51% mention rate.
Aging is not already done, the elderly and "mobile phone freedom" there is still some distance, especially after the optimization of basic functions such as large fonts, large volume, concise pages, etc., the problem of "raising clams" brought about by harassing advertisements and malicious links may become the biggest obstacle between the elderly and "mobile phone freedom".
Until then, helping the elderly (whether family members or strangers) clean up their phones will still be a "show of hands" that we need to give at any time.
reference:
1. Tencent Technology: "Cook: If you want to sideload, you can buy an Android phone"
2. Lei Technology: "MIUI launched the "pure mode", which is the evidence of mobile phone manufacturers to strengthen ecological control"
3. Geek Park: "Let's See What the Mobile APP Is Doing Behind Your Back"
4. Phoenix Technology: "Unveiling the Privacy Trafficking Industry Chain of Internet Manufacturers"
5. IT House: "Gurman: Apple Is Unlikely to Overhaul the APP Store for the U.S. Government Bill"