5 Android myths that need to die

It’s often hard to separate fact from fiction when discussing Android phones and there are many myths floating out there which just aren’t true. But why do these myths exist in the first place? Some might have been true with old phones, but technology has moved forward, and they no longer apply to current models.

Marketing also has a big part to play in shaping beliefs and brands often oversell certain smartphone features in an effort to entice customers to upgrade faster. Other myths are like urban legends that refuse to die and get passed around the internet because there’s nobody to stop them. Today, we’re busting these five Android myths which deserve to die.

Charging your phone overnight can damage the battery

It’s not an issue

This myth might have been true with older phones, which would experience battery degradation with continuous trickle charging. Modern phones have smart technology which stops charging when the battery reaches 100% capacity. The charging process only starts again when the battery level drops.

This system reduces the battery degradation to the point where it takes years to notice a difference. If you still want to take precautions to extend its lifespan, you can try activating settings, like Samsung’s Battery protection which regulates charging. It offers different modes which stop charging the battery when it reaches a certain level, then starts charging again if the battery drops below a certain threshold. Another way to prolong your battery’s lifespan is to ensure it doesn’t get too low before you top it up, because this eats into the charging cycles.

More megapixels means better camera quality

Other factors are more important

Smartphone brands love advertising the megapixels of their new cameras, but is it as important as you think? Not really. Each megapixel is a million pixels and there’s a common misconception that more is better for creating clearer images. The megapixel count refers to the number of pixels in an image, but not their size or quality.

The sensor size is more important because the bigger it is, the more pixels it can fit. Even then, the size of the megapixels is more important than the quantity because having a few larger ones will capture more light than many smaller ones. Modern phones usually use a system called pixel binning which combines the information from multiple neighboring pixels into a single big pixel to create brighter images with less noise.

Phone camera quality isn’t just about lenses and sensors and the software to process images also plays a big role. This software automatically corrects the color, sharpens edges, and performs other optimizations to enhance photo quality. This is why sensor size and the phone’s software quality are better metrics for determining camera quality than the megapixel count.

Android is more vulnerable to malware compared to iPhone

An easily avoidable issue

This one depends on how you use your Android. iPhones are sealed off in a walled garden and the app store has more stringent requirements and stricter policies for software in their ecosystem. The Google Play Store is a safe place to download Android apps, and you’re very unlikely to encounter malicious apps on the platform.

The myth about Android being more vulnerable to malware stems from its ability to bypass the Google Play Store and side-load unverified apps from third-party sites. While it’s true that some of these apps are dangerous, the issue is easily avoidable by sticking to the Play Store, and most users have nothing to worry about. If you have to side-load apps, you can mitigate the risk by sticking to APKs from trusted developers and staying away from suspicious or pirated apps.

Software updates throttle your phone’s performance

Maybe on other platforms

There’s a popular misconception that software updates are designed to slow down your Android phone. This myth is probably linked to Apple’s “Batterygate” fiasco, in which the company had to pay out millions for throttling the performance on older iPhones to prevent battery degradation without telling users.

The truth is phones can get slower after software updates, but it’s not part of an agenda to get you to upgrade. Most software updates are designed to run on the latest models and aren’t as optimized to run on older hardware. Newer features, like AI tools, require more RAM and other resources, which makes the phone seem slower. It’s still always worth it to keep your phone regularly updated to have the latest features and prevent security risks.

Your phone is listening to your conversations to target ads

It’s highly unlikely

Many users believe that their phones are secretly listening in to their conversations, then targeting them with ads related to what they were talking about. The truth is that phone features, like voice assistants are listening for commands and prompts for things they should do. These apps listen for commands, but aren’t actively trying to find keywords for ad-related purposes.

It’s uncanny that our phones know how to target us with ads, but it’s usually because of our browsing history, searches or location. If you are suspicious about apps recording your conversations, you can always check the settings to see which ones have permission to use your microphone.