You told us: Readers are heavily split over OEM accounts on their phones

Android phones will prompt you to log in to a Google account to install apps and download updates. Some OEMs, however, offer up their own accounts and services, too. Usually, users can avoid logging in to these entirely at the expense of some additional features. But often, these features are pretty useful.

To this end, we asked readers in a recent poll their feelings towards OEM accounts and whether they use them at all. Here’s what they told us.

Are you logged into an OEM/manufacturer account on your phone?

Results

Readers were pretty torn on this one. The poll published on our site garnered more than 2,800 responses. A solid 56.7% of readers are logged into an OEM account on their devices. This trend continues on Twitter, where 52.1% of readers voted “Yes.” Results on YouTube, however, swung the other way around. Some 52% of the ~24,000 voters say they are not logged in to an OEM account on their devices.

Our original poll article defined an OEM account as a secondary account offered by third-party manufacturers. The likes of Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi all offer their own account login options alongside Google. Judging by the comments, several users across all three platforms use custom ROMs, Pixel devices, or iOS. Google and Apple’s devices require users to log in with their respective accounts. Keep in mind that those voting with Pixels or iPhones may have skewed the results.

Those who are logged in to OEM accounts do so to access themes, promotions, and third-party services. Several users who don’t, however, feel there is nothing to be gained by logging in.

Here’s what you told us

• Abhiram Akula: I’m on iOS, so it’s a no-brainer. But even when I was using Samsung, I did use the Samsung account, just because I could use the Samsung apps to sync with Microsoft ones.
• Luis R. Rodriguez: Yes, logged into my Samsung account. Using OEM software.
• v3xman: Logged in to my mi account just so I can download themes and prevent thieves from resetting my device in case it’s stolen.
• Reetu Ilmari: I use Xiaomi Cloud, so yes.
• Takagi: Yes. I have a Samsung account, and it’s very useful as cloud backup for some of my personal data (contacts, messages, notes, calendar), as well as transfer them seamlessly to my new Samsung phones from my Galaxy S4 to my Galaxy Note 4, up until my current daily driver Galaxy Note 9. No need to resort to 3rd-party apps. It also allows me to find my devices, just like Google, but Samsung seems to have the options to still retrieve or backup important data, which Google doesn’t have.
• The Oracle: On my Samsung tablet definitely. Samsung Internet, Pass and Cloud make life much easier. On my HUAWEI for their very good app store. On my vivo no.
• Albin: Never registered for Lenovo and Moto devices, but learned useful things about both from the OEM user forum discussions while researching and after purchase, and have log-ins there. I’ve disabled most of the preinstalled OEM branded software, some of which needed some kind of OEM account.
• Joe Black: Nope, as I see no benefit in doing so.

That’s it for this poll. Thanks for your votes and comments. If you have any additional thoughts on the topic or the poll results, be sure to drop them down below.