iPhone vs Android: targeting by device

The phone someone carries says a little about them — what they paid for it, which app store they use, which messages they can receive. Sometimes that is exactly the filter a campaign needs; sometimes it just throws away good customers.

When device targeting pays off

• iOS-only products — an iPhone app, an Apple Watch strap, a MagSafe accessory. Sending it to Android owners is pure waste.
• Repairs, cases and trade-ins for a specific brand.
• Premium offers where you want people used to paying for a premium device — useful as one signal, not as proof of income.
• Rich messages: if your campaign is an RCS card with images and buttons, what matters is whether the phone can show it — that is what an RCS-ready list is for.

When it does not

For mass-market offers — a pizza deal, an energy tariff, a local event — filtering by device just shrinks the audience. In countries where Android is the majority, an iPhone-only list leaves most people out; in markets with a high iPhone share, such as the UK or Denmark, the filter cuts less. Ask yourself: would an Android owner buy this? If yes, do not filter.

How your message looks on each phone

A business text arrives as a normal SMS on any phone. iPhones running iOS 18 or later can also receive RCS where the network supports it, so rich messages reach more iPhones than before — but not all of them. iMessage, the blue bubbles between iPhones, is a separate person-to-person service you cannot send campaigns through. Whatever the device, keep a plain-text version of the message that works everywhere.

Match the landing page to the device

If you filtered for iPhone users, link straight to the App Store page, use Apple Pay at checkout if you can, and test the page in Safari. Sending an iPhone list to a page built for Android — or to a generic "download our app" page with two buttons — loses people at the last step.

Test it like any other filter

1. Send the same message to 1,000 numbers from an iPhone-only list and 1,000 from a general list in the same country.
2. Compare replies, clicks and sales — not just clicks.
3. If the iPhone list wins clearly, scale it; if the results are close, the cheaper reach of the general list probably wins.

The iPhone filter is available in all six countries, from 1,000 to 50,000 numbers, and can be limited to one network. Ask for 200 free numbers to run the test.