As Millennials mature and shift to new life stages, such as buying homes or starting families, there is growing evidence that their mobile app usage is also starting to reflect their changing priorities and responsibilities – a term frequently referred to simply as #adulting.
Chalk it up to years of life experience, from landlord/tenant disputes, to costly traffic tickets, to handling estate planning issues with aging parents. Millennials – some of whom are now pushing age 40 – are clearly more aware of life’s uncertainties and see the value in this type of mobile app.
In fact, new data by LegalShield [legalshield.com] suggests that Millennials, now the largest generation in the U.S., are moving past using only popular social media, shopping and news apps – and showing strong interest in apps that offer essential legal services.
Here’s a quick snapshot of some key findings:
Legal services app? Tell me more: 73% of Millennials who own a smartphone or tablet say they would be interested in an app that provides essential legal services. Interest is even higher among smartphone/tablet owners who have children under age 18 in the household (76%), regardless of generation. Yet only 8% of Millennials surveyed say they already use a legal services app.
Essential benefits of a legal services app: The top-ranking individual benefits of a legal services app – rated important by over 7 in 10 smartphone/tablet owners – would be helping with warranty and insurance claims, creating a last will and testament, and calling a lawyer 24/7 in an emergency.
Early adopters: According to the survey, Millennials are twice as likely to already use a legal services app when compared to Generation X or Baby Boomers.
No fear yet growing awareness. According to the survey, data breaches aren’t scaring Millennials away from mobile shopping as 78% of Millennial smartphone/tablet owners use shopping apps like Amazon and Etsy, but only 12% use an identity theft protection app, a stunningly low number given the number of high-profile data breaches among companies this age cohort favors, such as Uber and Target. When it comes to specific categories of apps, Millennial awareness of identity theft protection (56%) and legal services (44%) apps is growing, though much lower when compared to popular ride-sharing apps (78%) such as Uber and Lyft.
Men vs. women: When broken down by gender, the survey found that smartphone/tablet owner awareness of identity theft protection and legal services apps is significantly higher among men than women. The difference in app usage is stark: 75% of women say they use shopping apps, but only 2% use legal services apps. For men, 70% use shopping apps while 8% use a legal services app.
The independent research was conducted by ORC International, a leading global business intelligence company, and commissioned by LegalShield.
