• Millennials know what they want out of their phone, and it has nothing to do with making traditional calls.
  • Most of the 1,180 millennials and Generation Z respondents surveyed said they would rather have unlimited data and give up calling than the other way around.
  • There are alternative communication methods users would have to pay to use if they chose the latter, and most people – particularly younger generations – hardly make the calls to justify needing unlimited minutes.

Phone calls could be a thing of the past, if millennials had their way.

While calling isn’t a lost communication method for everyone, younger generations see it as a dispensable feature while viewing data as nonnegotiable. A smartphone without a phone still has countless purposes, after all, while a smartphone without data is just a phone.

And given the option between no calling and no data, 78% of millennials (ages 18 to 34) said they would prefer to sign up for a phone plan with no calling and unlimited data over a plan with no data and unlimited calling, according to a survey conducted by the app-based phone service Visible.

The trend is a product of stronger networks and their ability to seamlessly support other methods of communication like messaging and video calls without a hitch, negating the need for a calling feature altogether. Another large factor at play is social media, which not only requires data but is now accessed almost entirely via mobile – some of the newer platforms like Instagram and Snapchat aren’t even built out completely for desktop.

But it isn't always about keeping in touch: About a third of respondents said they downloaded new apps about once a month and 12% said they downloaded new apps weekly. Most respondents were also aware that Netflix and Spotify were partially to blame for their data use; that's probably why 74% said they would opt for a flat-rate plan rather than pay for what they actually use.

Most of the millennials and Generation Z (ages 18 to 22) participants surveyed claimed to be fairly knowledgeable about their cellphone plan, and it looks as if they know what they're looking for in the fine print: data, data, and more data.