I think for some people, it is. If I want to "delete Facebook" then I want to delete my account and every data associated with it. This is often not a straight forward process because sometimes the delete account option is buried in settings, you have to contact support, fill out a form, etc. Hence a quick search will guide you through the deletion process.
Instagram had a similar problem when I deleted it a year or so later: you couldn't delete your account from the app. You had to log in via a browser, navigate the very dated UI through to advanced settings, and request a deletion there. A lot of folks don't even know their Instagram password -- I think they just used SMS codes originally -- so it was surprisingly hard to get a password associated with my account so I could even log in via a browser!
stop to think about how many people in the world are not techy smart people and might need a reminder/refresher from time to time on how to delete an app. or maybe possibly, "delete an app" can mean something more like actually deleting their content from the platform and then deleting their account? but hey, they're technology illiterate anyways so who cares, right?
Edit: to remove the dang disapproved snark
Deleting an app is deleting an app. Deleting your account with a company is something different. You could keep the app installed on your phone, but delete your account.
Honestly this isn't a very good article and seems to just be blogspam.
Can you even assume intent here? Maybe they are trying to delete the app for some other reason, like trying to save storage space or fix a bug.
Which OEMs do that? I haven't seen that from HTC, Motorola or Google.
Not being snarky here. I'd like to know who actually does so. Allowing me to avoid them in the future[0].
[0] I'd note that LineageOS[1] doesn't do that either. I highly recommend it!
Samsung for one.
Since the article's own title is misleading, I've edited it to make it clear that they measured searches for "delete".
Yes, its called a proxy. It's not perfect, but it's very likely has a strong correlation and low standard deviation from the truth.
> What they’re measuring is stats on people too technologically illiterate to manage the apps installed on their own device, right? That’s a significant skew on the conclusions they’re drawing isn’t it?
It's enough of a population to demonstrate probability.
But you haven't deleted your Facebook account. You've removed the app from your phone.
If your goal was to delete your Facebook account you've failed.
Each company has a different way to actually achieve (or come as close as they allow you) removing your account from their service. It's completely reasonable that (even technologically literate people) would need to search for how to accomplish that goal for service X, since the services tend to be intentionally somewhat hidden.
Note the search term in the article isn't "Delete Instragram *app*", it was "Delete Instagram Account". Those are different things.
> We looked into the top 30 most popular apps people most want to delete in the United States by delving into regional search volumes for “delete” and “deactivate” apps/accounts by each state.
They’re not going off of actual app deletion or account deactivation data… they’re going off of how often people search for how to do it?
Here’s the thing - if I want to ‘delete Facebook’ then I’ll do it - there’s no searching involved, I go to my home screen, long-press the ‘f’ icon and then choose the ‘trash’ option. My decision to delete Facebook is not captured in their data.
What they’re measuring is stats on people too technologically illiterate to manage the apps installed on their own device, right? That’s a significant skew on the conclusions they’re drawing isn’t it?