Since everyone here has the big brain idea of telling you you’re dumb for not just buying a phone every couple years (completely missing the point of what you were asking), I’ll take a minute to actually answer your question.

Yes. Annual refreshes are way too frequent for technology this mature. Slowing it to every other year instead (maybe software releases on odd years, hardware on even?) would dramatically reduce costs and improve stability. Changes would have time to be thoroughly rested and implemented, and they’d get more use out of the same design (including components, molds, tooling, etc.). It would actually be better for manufacturers too, in that it would be more efficient (they’d make slightly less money, but with significantly less work and investment), but they would never do it. Manufacturers don’t succeed by being good at what they do, they succeed by manipulating the meta. Regular releases keep your brand on people’s minds. Timing your announcements and making a big deal about it makes a huge difference (everyone wants to be the hot thing in Q4 so people buy them for Christmas), and brands don’t want to miss an opportunity.

The annual cycle is a marketing tactic. And it honestly works, so I think it’s probably here to stay.

https://youtu.be/e2n2ftM-MwI?si=F_1PfmfYQadCr9Zl

Clicks keyboard?

… Anything? That’s… That’s what currency is?

Microsoft launcher is super underrated IMO. Lots of customization. I use it for my foldable, but it’s a bit hit or miss sometimes (scaling of folders sometimes gets messed up going from open to closed).

My gut reaction (that others seem to share) is that the activity might be the problem. I always hate giving up my lunch during the workweek, because it’s my only alone time to unwind during the day.

Try a different activity (group activities can be less intimidating for sure, like “hey I’m meeting a few friends at a park Saturday if you feel like swinging by” because then there’s less pressure on them specifically). Maybe a walk or something on Sunday mornings, or ask him about his hobbies specifically? You can also just communicate via phone and still be friends. Maybe he’s still just working up to the point where he feels comfortable hanging out socially frequently.

Good luck!

So i just got a Oneplus Open (the folding phone) and have been test driving launchers to see what works well.

Call me crazy, but Microsofts launcher they made for the Duo is actually really solid. You can adjust the dock to pull out like a mini app drawer while still having a full app drawer (with folder support), and each of those is independent (you have have a dock be like 12 columns wide and 3 rows tall while your homescreens are something more normal like 4x4). Individual icon changes too, which is always a big deal for me. And you can even do things like have the app drawer show the defauot icons while your homescreen is all custom icons.

It even has a universal search bar like nova does, and you can toggle what it searches for (apps, documents, web, all of the above). I was worried it would force me to use microsoft stuff to get the full use out of it, but nope.

Im honestly incredibly impressed. Its almost as featured as the free version of Nova launcher.