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What's The 'Apple's Best Feature' Meme On Twitter? The Infamous '8938' Screenshot Explained
There's a running joke on Twitter that's resurfacing right now. It involves an iPhone screenshot, showing a "text code" with the numbers "8938" circled in red. Why are Twitter comedians calling it "Apple's best feature" in an ironic tone?
The inside joke is both abstract and simple, using the same screenshot and the same caption. To an outsider, it might seem confusing. Let's explain.
What Is The 'Apple's Best Feature' Meme?
In order to explain the joke, one must first understand what the "iOS feature" is. The feature, present on all modern Apple devices, is called a "text code" and it appears when someone is entering a confirmation code texted to them by the security services of a given app.
For instance, say you're trying to log into your Uber account and you forgot your password. Uber will text you a code to confirm your identity. To streamline this, Apple added a feature in 2021 that automatically showed the text code, making it easier for people to enter it automatically.
On January 15th, 2021, Twitter user @rovenskyalcin was the first to go viral for posting a screenshot of the then-recent feature. As evident from the massive amount of likes he received, a lot of people agreed. The concept of the text code feature being "Apple's best feature" seemed widely universal and incredibly relatable.
Due to how universally accepted the concept was, @rovenskyalcin's tweet was quickly stolen by "meme stealers" who posted copycat tweets that used the exact same caption. To make matters worse, these copycats also used the same screenshot from @rovenskyalcin's phone, evident in the same text code "8938" visible at the top.
To many on Twitter, the blatant stealing of the original tweet was hilariously shameless. On top of this, many of the copycat tweets also went viral, even more viral than the original tweet that @rovenskyalcin sent. The practice of viral copycat tweets following the same format persisted into both 2022 and 2023. In turn, this led to satirical iterations.
At its core, the "Apple's best feature" meme revolves around light-hearted backlash to one of the most common phenomena in the meme sphere: stealing. Yes, joke stealing is widely commonplace in memes, and to combat this, one must make fun of the shameless stealers. This is what the "8938" meme seems to prove.
For the full history of Apple's best feature, be sure to check out the entry on the meme in our encyclopedia for even more information.
