Smartphones have moved from being a luxury or a convenience to become a necessity or a lifeline, yet people over 50 are both less likely to own the devices and more likely to feel excluded by them, Axios' Peter Allen Clark reports.

Why it matters: More than ever, services and businesses from banks to doctors' offices and restaurants to airlines expect users to have access to smartphones — but many older people still lack digital skills, and products don't always take their needs into account.

By the numbers: A December 2021 survey conducted by AARP found that three in four people over the age of 50 say they rely on technology to stay connected, but 42% of them say that technology is not designed for all ages.

• "That's a big number and a big problem," Michael Phillips, AARP's director for technology strategy and partnerships, tells Axios.

The big picture: Many new features introduced in Apple and Google products, such as iOS' Crash Detection and Android's Live Translate, aim to save lives or actively improve real-time in-person interactions.

• But older users still show hesitancy to jump on the smartphone bandwagon. A Pew Research Center study earlier this year found that 96% of U.S. adults age 18–29 own a smartphone, compared with 61% of those 65 and older.

Advocates worry particularly that these older non-users might miss out on ways that health apps paired with phones could improve their lives.

• "If people don't trust the technology, they're not going to use the technology, even if it will help them live a little bit healthier life," Phillips says.
• A University of Michigan survey from February found that 28% of adults aged 50–80 said they use at least one mobile health app, while 56% said they've never used one.
• The survey found that older adults who reported excellent, very good, or good health were more likely to use health apps compared with those in fair or poor health.

Yes, but: Crafting devices and operating systems that are easier for more people to use has become a focus for the tech industry, and there's been progress.

• Along with now standard visual and audio accessibility customizations like text size, zoom and audio assists, phone makers have further extended phones' capabilities with additional speech interfaces and add-on devices.
• Apple's new iOS 16 has also added accessibility options for older users with features like Door Detection and Live Captions.
• "While we do have a lot to accomplish in this space, we are committed to making accessibility a core consideration of Android product design," Google's Angana Ghosh, director of product management with Android, told Axios. "We partner with communities to learn firsthand what their challenges are and how we can be the most helpful to them."

What they're saying: "Tech issues exist in smartphones for older individuals ... [but] the benefits are still a huge plus," Debra Berlyn, executive director of the Project to Get Older Adults onLine, told Axios. "The smartphone is an invaluable tool for aging."

Between the lines: A new feature is only useful to older users if they know it exists and can find it easily.

• Accessibility tools and modes are often tucked away under sub-menus or hidden by confusing names.
• "Ease of discoverability can be especially important for individuals who may not identify as having a disability, but who would benefit from using accessibility tools," Google's Ghosh says.

Reality check: Advocates are concerned that user interface and experience designers acquire their biases in school.

• "Inclusive design really has to happen within the universities and teaching people how to design more inclusively," Phillips said.

The bottom line: For older users to fully embrace the smartphone, they'll have to get more comfortable with the technology and confident that they can find uses for it that will improve their lives.

Slack is announcing today a new collaborative feature dubbed Canvas, built on Salesforce's Quip technology, marking the first major technology integration since Slack was acquired by Salesforce last year.

Why it matters: Slack has already been trying to supplant other forms of business communication, including chat and email, and now it's trying to take on tasks previously handled by productivity tools such as Google Docs and Microsoft Office.

Between the lines: The move shows the potential of Slack to benefit from Salesforce's broad portfolio of software in addition to its sales and marketing muscle.

• For example, during the Olympics, Slack ran TV ads it would never have sprung for on its own.
• Canvas is set to be available next year.

The big picture: The announcement is one of several that Salesforce is making today as it kicks off its massive Dreamforce conference.

Google this week is launching a pilot program to keep emails from political campaigns from going to users' spam folders, the company told Axios' Ashley Gold.

Why it matters: Gmail users may start seeing a lot more political emails in their inboxes, partly as a result of Google bowing to pressure from conservatives who claimed the company marked Republican emails as spam more often than emails from Democrats.

What's happening: Google asked the Federal Election Commission in June if a program that would let campaigns emails bypass spam filters by default, and giving users the option to have them treated as spam, would be legal under campaign finance laws.

• Despite hundreds of negative comments submitted to the FEC arguing against the plan, the FEC approved it in August. Eligible campaigns, abiding by security requirements and best practices as outlined by Google, can now register to participate.

Between the lines: Google faces complaints that its algorithms unfairly target conservative content across its services, and that its Gmail service filters more Republican fundraising and campaign emails to spam.

• This is partly based on a study from North Carolina State University, though its authors say it has been misconstrued.

What they're saying: "We expect to begin the pilot with a small number of campaigns from both parties and will test whether these changes improve the user experience, and provide more certainty for senders during this election period," José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, told Axios.

How it works: Once political campaigns are enrolled in Google's pilot program, their messages will no longer be filtered by Gmail's standard forms of spam detection, though Gmail will keep scanning messages for phishing and malware.

• Users will see a banner on the first email from participants in the program, asking if they want to keep seeing the messages, unsubscribe or report as spam.

On Tap

• Salesforce is once again taking over downtown San Francisco with Dreamforce, which runs through Thursday.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on antitrust issues that will feature FTC chair Lina Khan and assistant attorney general Jonathan Kanter.
• Grace Hopper Celebration, which focuses on the contributions of women and nonbinary people in computing, takes place this week in Orlando.

Trading Places

• Foursquare has hired Scott McCormick, formerly of HackerOne and Reciprocity, as its new chief information security officer.

ICYMI

• Apple is promising to release a software update next week to address an issue that causes the camera in the iPhone 14 Pro to shake while using certain applications. (9to5Mac)
• New York state and the Justice Department asked a federal appeals court to reinstate an antitrust suit against Meta brought by 48 U.S. states and territories in 2020. (Bloomberg)

Check out this giant clothespin sculpture, located in Belgium and created by Turkish artist Mehmet Ali Uysal.