iOS Stashers vs. Android Stashers: Do They Invest Differently?

By: Team Stash

Published: Nov 30, 2018
•  Updated: Jun 09, 2026

Does your phone dictate your investing style? We dig into the data.

In this article:

1. Here’s what we found out:
2. Here’s how things break down by investment choice:

America’s a divided country. We tend to split into two camps on nearly any subject— Republican vs. Democrat, cake vs. pie, and even iOS vs. Android.

iOS and Android, of course, are the world’s most widely-used smartphone operating systems—99.6% of all new smartphones run one of the two systems.

Apple’s iOS, which runs on iPhones, is the most popular in the U.S., with roughly 65% of Americans’ smartphones running some version of the system as of 2018, according to industry data. The remaining 35% run Android, which is a Google product, and is installed on roughly 85% of smartphones around the world.

And because Stash runs on both platforms, we can get an inside look at the differences between how iOS and Android users invest their money.

To conduct the analysis*, Stash’s data team looked at the percentage of users that hold certain investments on both iOS and Android, and compared the two to identify the investments (stocks and ETFs) with the greatest disparity.

Here’s what we found out:

Key takeaways from the Stash data team:

• iOS users tend to have higher incomes, and identify themselves as more experienced investors.
• iOS users’ portfolios tend to be more vested in the tech sector.
• Android users’ portfolios skew toward the food and beverage industries.
• Android users tend to prefer individual stocks over ETFs.

Here’s how things break down by investment choice:

Investments that skew toward Android users (compared to iOS users):

• Twitter (twice as likely to hold than iOS users)
• Monster (twice as likely)
• Hershey (70% more likely)
• Hewlett Packard
• YUM! Brands
• Activision Blizzard
• Mondelez
• Royal Caribbean Cruises
• Tractor Supply Co.
• Deere & Co. (John Deere)

Investments that skew toward iOS users (compared to Android users):

• Apple (twice as likely to hold than Android users)
• Modern Meds (60% more likely)—an ETF that focuses on biotechnology and pharmaceuticals (XBI)
• Copy the Experts (41% more likely)—an ETF that focuses on the companies that top hedge funds are excited about (GURU)
• AT&T
• Colossal China—an ETF that focuses on China’s top companies (GXL)
• Starbucks
• Salesforce
• Aggressive Mix—an ETF that’s balanced specifically for investors with a moderate risk profile (AOR)
• Nike
• Facebook
• Destination Recreation—an ETF that focuses on entertainment and leisure (PEJ)
• Snap
• Target
• Social Media Mania—an ETF that focuses on social media companies (SOCL)

*The data team restricted its analysis to users on the Stash platform who own at least some securities. Then, for each investment (stock or ETF), they compared the fraction of users who hold that investment on iOS (out of total iOS users with some investments) against the fraction of users who hold that investment on Android (out of total Android users with some investments). They then compared these two fractions to see which have the greatest difference–or, when the ratio of the two fractions is the highest or lowest, as of November 5, 2018.