We asked, you told us: Phone cameras are for photos, not video

When we talk about smartphone cameras, about 90% of those discussions revolve around photo-taking capabilities, not video. There are a few reasons for that: photos are easier to take than video, they’re easier to share, and not every situation requires a video to be captured. Also, companies spend most of their resources improving photography features in their smartphones as opposed to adding more video features.

I asked you last week how often you record video on your smartphone. Out of over 22,000 total votes across the website, Twitter, and YouTube, one thing is excruciatingly clear: recording video is not a priority with smartphone users.

How often do you record video on your smartphone?

Results

A total of 70.2% of Android Authority readers said they “very rarely or never” record video on their smartphones. This is where I fall, too. I really can’t tell you the last time I recorded video on a smartphone outside of a review.

At a very distant second, 23.55% of voters said they rarely record video, maybe one to two times a week. Finally, just 6.25% of voters said they record video often, nearly every day.

Feel free to take a look at how different readers voted on Twitter vs YouTube, but the results really aren’t that different from one another. Just about every poll showed roughly 70% of all voters rarely record video.

Here’s what you had to say

Here are some of the best comments from last week’s poll explaining why they voted the way that they did:

• Ivelin Ognyanov: It’s quite simple really and down to: do you have kids? :)
• Yakubu Tukur: Most people that I know insisted on best camera phones not because of taking videos but because of the picture quality.
• Drake Dodson: It takes a pretty special occasion for me to record video (other than maybe a Snapchat) … Like maybe once every 3 or 4 months.
• Garrett Cooper: I was very rarely until we had our daughter. Now it’s a few times a week.
• nix: Im one of the few I suppose that likes recording random videos. I typically do it a couple times a week with vlogs or showing random things im working on
• roaduardo: Pets and kids? I think that’s mainly why many record videos on their phones? Not many of us are vloggers. I’d say young kids and teens are really heavy with video recording? Adults with jobs? We’re busy? For me I think the kids and pet thing extends to snapping still images too. That’s about it. Vacations are another thing but how often can most of us take vacations?
• Jeff Daly: I use my S20 Ultra for video, an of the time. In fact, I use it professionally to co-host a podcast/vlog. I use it to record scenes to post online. I use it to create Stories on FB/Insta. I communicate with Marco Polo. I’ve base short films. I use the video features…a lot.
• Bonedatt: I can say for certain that I record at least three times a year, and they are usually on birthdays.
• Adrian: On the weekends when I hike
• My Galaxy Prime: The last time I took a video was literally a year ago.

That’s it for this week. As always, thanks for voting, thanks for the comments, and don’t forget to let us know what you thought of the results below.