75% of Americans prefer texting their mothers over calling, carrier data reveals - GSMArena.com news

On May 7, 2026, AT&T published new carrier data ahead of Mother's Day 2026, offering a detailed look at how Americans communicate with their mothers via mobile devices. The report, which aggregates anonymized usage data from the 2024 and 2025 Mother's Day periods across AT&T's network, confirms a long-standing shift away from voice calls toward text-based messaging, with 75% of respondents stating they text their mothers more frequently than they call them. For every single voice call placed to a mother, the average user sends three text messages, a ratio that has held steady across both years of tracked data.

The data covers all forms of mobile text messaging, including legacy SMS, Rich Communication Services (RCS), and iMessage, as AT&T's network tracks all cellular and Wi-Fi-based messaging traffic that routes through its infrastructure. This broad scope ensures the numbers reflect real-world usage across all major smartphone platforms and carrier plans.

Key Data Points

Houston leads all U.S. cities in mother-child connectivity, logging nearly 3 million more combined text messages and voice calls than the next closest city over the 2024 and 2025 measurement periods. San Antonio and Chicago round out the top three, with six of the 10 cities with the highest connectivity rates located in the Southern United States. AT&T notes that this regional concentration aligns with broader mobile adoption trends in the South, where smartphone penetration has outpaced the national average for three consecutive years.

The 3:1 text-to-call ratio holds steady across age groups, though users under 30 report sending five texts for every one call, while users over 50 report a 2:1 ratio. This age-based split reflects differing adoption rates of modern messaging features, as younger users have grown up with full QWERTY keyboards and rich media sharing as standard parts of the texting experience.

Ecosystem Context

This shift in communication habits is directly tied to the evolution of mobile hardware and software. Early feature phones relied on T9 predictive typing, making long text messages tedious to compose, but modern smartphones with 6-inch-plus OLED displays, haptic touch feedback, and AI-powered predictive text have made typing faster and more accurate than placing a voice call for many users. As of 2026, 92% of U.S. smartphone users own a device with a screen size of 6 inches or larger, per GSMArena's 2026 device survey, a form factor that prioritizes media consumption and text input over voice communication.

OS-level updates have also driven texting adoption. Apple's iOS 18 added scheduled messaging, improved voice dictation for text input, and expanded iMessage support for satellite connectivity, allowing users to send texts to mothers in areas with no cellular coverage. Google's Android 16 rolled out universal RCS support across all carrier networks, bringing high-resolution media sharing, typing indicators, and end-to-end encryption to Android users, matching features long available to iOS users via iMessage. These OS-level improvements reduce friction for texting, making it a more appealing option than voice calls for quick check-ins.

Ecosystem lock-in plays a subtle but measurable role in messaging preferences. Users deeply embedded in Apple's ecosystem are more likely to use iMessage for mother-child communication, as features like shared photo libraries, FaceTime integration, and Memoji stickers are exclusive to iOS devices. Android users who rely on Google's ecosystem get similar cross-device perks, including syncing messages between phones, Chromebooks, and web browsers via Google Messages. Carriers like AT&T benefit from this shift as well, as text-based traffic uses cellular data or Wi-Fi rather than legacy voice network infrastructure, freeing up spectrum for 5G and 6G rollout. AT&T confirmed in its report that voice traffic on its network has declined by 12% year-over-year since 2022, while data traffic tied to messaging has grown by 28% over the same period.

Practical accessibility improvements have also expanded texting adoption among older mothers. iOS 18 and Android 16 both include large text modes, screen reader support, and one-tap voice dictation, making it easier for older adults who may have slower typing speeds to participate in text conversations. A 2025 study by the Pew Research Center found that 78% of adults over 65 own a smartphone, up from 42% in 2018, with texting now the primary communication method for 61% of that demographic, a figure that aligns closely with AT&T's 75% overall preference number. You can review the full Pew study here.

When users share Mother's Day greetings or articles like this one via text, rich preview images often appear alongside links, making it easy to send visual context along with a quick message. This integration of rich media into text threads has further reduced the need for voice calls, as users can share photos, videos, and articles without needing to explain them verbally.

For mobile users, this shift means carriers and device makers will continue to prioritize messaging features over voice call improvements in future OS updates and device specs. Upcoming smartphones like the rumored iPhone 17 and Samsung Galaxy S27 are expected to include dedicated messaging co-processors to improve text delivery speeds and reduce battery usage for heavy texters, a direct response to usage trends like those outlined in AT&T's report. For consumers, the takeaway is clear: texting is no longer a secondary communication method for most, but the primary way Americans connect with their closest family members, driven by better hardware, smarter software, and ecosystem integration that makes it faster and more convenient than picking up the phone.