Younger Generations Present a Market Share Growth Opportunity Through Improved Digital App Experiences
In October 2025, Circles surveyed 1,000 US consumers and found that high satisfaction may not strictly translate to loyalty. In an earlier post that covered the study’s overall insights, it was mentioned that while 87 percent of US consumers mentioned they were satisfied with their current service providers, 7 out of 10 of them considered switching to a competitor if offered significantly better customer experiences for the same price. This attitude isn’t the same across age groups, though.
A deeper dive into the data shows that younger generations were more likely to be ‘satisfied but switch ready.’ The US’s younger generations are hungrier for better experiences and are open to personalized digital experiences and discounts for services like food delivery or ride-hailing on telco apps, making them a prime opportunity for US telcos to capture more market share.
As this warrants further exploration, this article dives into various differences in values and behaviors towards telcos between age groups that can guide US telcos’ upcoming strategies for 2026.
Younger Generations Are Frequent Telco App Users, and Open to Digital Experiences
An Opportunity to Become a Digital Lifestyle Hub for Non-Telco Services
The US market is warming up to the idea of telcos going beyond their traditional telco role. Respondents expressed interest in switching telco providers for meaningful discounts on services like ride hailing, food delivery, and payments:
Younger generations also showed interest in trying telco apps that provided value beyond traditional telco services, such as providing personalized recommendations for shopping, travel, entertainment, and more:
With the advent of super apps like WeChat in China and Gojek in Indonesia, there is an appetite among younger users around the world for digital hubs, and with younger US users indicating this level of interest, telcos can experiment with building these ecosystems with their telco apps at the center.
Millennials and Gen Z Are Frequent Telco App Users
On top of US Millennials’ and Gen Z’s hunger for better digital experiences, they also use their telco apps more frequently than Baby Boomers and Gen X.
When compared to older generations, Millennials and Gen Z use telco apps a lot more often. 43 percent of Gen Zs and 49 percent of Millennials are using the app versus 17 percent of Baby Boomers and 27 percent of Gen X.
This difference in app usage means that US telcos already have access to a pool of active users that they can cater new digital experiences to by building app-centric journeys, upsell prompts, and ecosystem plays. In comparison, Boomers and older Generation X users still need strong hybrid journeys that don’t assume heavy app usage and support from human customer service agents.
While Personalized Experiences and Seamless User Experiences Are Important Privacy is Table Stakes for Digital Experiences
With high-profile hacks and data breaches becoming the norm, US consumers are conscious about privacy. At least one-third of every age group in the survey mentioned privacy as the number one most important aspect of their telco digital experience. The majority of respondents in every age group mentioned that privacy was equally as important as other factors like personalized services and seamless user experiences.
When looking at third-place rankings for the question, younger generations’ openness to digital experiences could also be seen here. 12 percent of Gen Z and 11 percent of Millennials mentioned that personalization was most important to them, while 12 percent of Gen X valued seamless user experiences.
What this means for telcos is that innovating on personalized services and seamless user experiences is still important, but reassuring US customers on privacy protection is vital to their branding.
Bundles are Attractive to Younger Users
Younger generations find bundles where mobile and home internet are provided by the same provider more appealing. Millennials led the way with 60 percent of them valuing bundles as either very important or somewhat important, with Gen Z coming in second at 55 percent. Only 30 percent of Baby Boomers, on the other hand, found bundles important to their connectivity needs.
When reaching younger generations, these bundles could emphasize privacy along with non-telco discounts and non-traditional telco services.
Influencers Matter More to Younger Users, But Fundamentals Still Win
In the earlier article that discussed overall findings, 51 percent of respondents mentioned that celebrity or influencer endorsements don’t impact their telco purchasing decisions. But upon closer examination, younger generations are actually more open to celebrity endorsement.
When asked, “How does celebrity or influencer involvement with telecom brands (e.g., Ryan Reynolds with Mint Mobile or Will Arnett with SmartLess Mobile) impact your likelihood of choosing these brands over traditional telecom brands?” 1 in 4 Millennials and 1 in 5 Gen Zs mentioned that they trust celebrity endorsements. 25 percent of Millennials and 31 percent of Gen Zs said that celebrity endorsements help them become aware of the brand, but they will then base their decisions on the brand’s price, features, and service quality.
What this means for telcos is that influencer and celebrity endorsements can help with top-of-funnel marketing awareness, but these still need to link back to real product performance and advantages. For the older generations, trust, service reliability, and value-for-money messaging are the way to go.
Connecting, Delighting, and Going Beyond Can Help Telcos Reach Younger Markets
In the US, older generations can be relied on to be more loyal, but the younger generation represents a path to future market share growth.
Millennials and Gen Z are more open to switching and more willing to embrace app-based experiences that go beyond traditional connectivity. While privacy remains a universal expectation across all age groups, Millennials and Gen Z are uniquely primed for richer digital journeys, meaningful bundles, and lifestyle-aligned value such as discounts on food delivery, transport, and entertainment.
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These varying consumer demands from younger and older generations lend credence to Circles’ Connectivity, Delight, and Beyond playbook, a holistic approach to transform telcos into ideal DMOs to attract and retain higher value, digitally savvy consumer segments. Also known as digital pioneers, this playbook caters to their needs in the following ways:
Telcos Can Harness AI to Truly Take Telco Apps Beyond Boundaries
With younger US generations showing more hunger for digital experiences, including telco app experiences, there are two ways that telcos can provide innovative app experiences:
Telcos could build towards becoming super apps, onboarding service partners onto their telco app ecosystems to provide personalized or discounted non-telco services and products to their customers.
Another method is to build deep, specialized services based on a specific niche that telcos seek to serve. Even among digital pioneers, there are specific niches built around different behaviors or interests, such as creative expressionists who love expressing themselves through artistic or creative communities or diversion seekers who love entertainment and gaming.
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These are possible futures that telcos can build towards to attract and retain digital pioneers from among the United States’ Millennials and Gen Z that you can read in more detail in our article about what telcos that go beyond traditional boundaries could look like. Telco SaaS providers like Circles are building towards this future through initiatives like the Xplore innovation sandbox, which is pushing the boundaries of what telcos can achieve with AI which you can read more about here.
As consumer preferences continue to evolve and different generations have different expectations, telcos need to take more holistic approaches to remain relevant and competitive. By taking holistic approaches assisted with AI-powered innovation, telcos can transform their telco app experiences and their overall telco experiences to become anticipatory techcos.
Circles is pioneering the world’s first AI Digital Mobile Operator (AI-DMO), transforming telcos into anticipatory techcos. By uniting AI, data intelligence, and global ecosystem partnerships, Circles drives cost savings, revenue growth, and personalized experiences—empowering operators to evolve from connectivity providers into trusted, AI-powered lifestyle enablers that proactively anticipate and meet customer needs.
Want to see how telcos can use AI to take their apps to the next level?
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