What you need to know
- Apple’s latest privacy ad depicts Android phones with thick bezels and dated designs that don’t reflect reality.
- The ad focuses on Safari privacy but portrays Android hardware as far more outdated than it actually is.
- Modern Android flagships like the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Find X9 Ultra look nothing like Apple’s examples.
- The ad feels like another unnecessary jab at Android rather than a showcase of iPhone privacy features.
Apple has released a new “Privacy on iPhone” ad, but it goes out of its way to portray Android phones as thick, outdated-looking boxes — all over again.
It’s nothing new for Apple and Google to take shots at each other. Tech companies have been doing that for years. What’s ironic, though, is that Google often seems more willing to embrace Apple’s products than Apple is to acknowledge modern Android phones. We’ve seen Google launch apps on iPhones first and even use MacBooks on stage during Google I/O.
Apple, meanwhile, still seems to have a very outdated idea of what Android phones actually look like.
Its latest Privacy on iPhone ad heavily focuses on Safari and privacy, showing Android users being tracked everywhere they go while browsing. Then, as soon as an iPhone user opens Safari, all of those trackers disappear into thin air.
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The funny part isn’t the privacy message itself. It’s the Android phones Apple chose to represent Android.
The devices shown in the ad have huge bezels around the display and a notched front camera design. Ironically, in 2026, it’s Apple that still sells devices with a notch cutout (the iPhone 16e), while most Android phones have moved on to punch-hole cameras and much slimmer designs.
The phones in the ad also feature a single rear camera, which feels even more disconnected from reality. Modern Android flagships like the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and even the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra are packed with camera hardware that goes far beyond what Apple is depicting here.
Personally, ads like this just don’t really land for me anymore. They feel disconnected from what the smartphone market actually looks like today. Maybe they work for Apple’s audience, but when the devices being mocked don’t resemble modern Android phones at all, the whole thing starts to feel a bit silly.
It’s not the first time Apple has released an ad like this, but we’re halfway through 2026, and I feel like Cupertino can do better than taking these kinds of cheap shots. If anything, the ad says more about how Apple views Android than how Android actually looks today. What Apple gets out of these ads at this point is honestly beyond me.