Facebook staff instructed to ditch their iPhones and use Android smartphones

Although every single member of the staff is doing it, it does not necessarily mean that all of them are doing it willingly.

Smartphone entry in the USA and Europe has reached a saturation point, Device assumption is increasing in places like India, where users prefer low-priced Android Smartphones.

Apple must not take this as a Facebook-led vendetta against the company, though.

Key engineers on product team are subject to a new and slightly peculiar policy: they must switch from iPhones to Android so they can have the same experience the majority of their users have while using the social network. Facebook, already has a large database of 1.5 billion people, is now looking to add even more users throughout the world.

The move is a pragmatic decision created to have its workers know what it's like to experience Facebook the way "most" of its users do-using an Android phone.

Facebook's chief product officer Chris Cox is insisting that an unspecified but substantial number of staff switch from iPhone to Android, in order to have an experience of the service more typical of that in emerging markets, reports .

Android boasts a little over 1.4 billion active users, as recently reported by , so it's no wonder Facebook is trying to dive deeper in this market.

It's not clear quite how many of Cox's team have been encouraged to switch, but given that he's one of Facebook's leaders, it's probably quite a lot.

IPhones may be nearly ubiquitous in the USA and United Kingdom, but in emerging markets such as India, where Facebook has set its sights, Android is by far the most common mobile operating system.

Facebook this week , where employees will be asked whether they want to temporarily use a slower connection, offering them speeds closer to those available in parts of Asia and Africa that have limited connectivity.