"==" is valid if you're comparing two primitive types of data, like Integers, booleans and so. Otherwise, you use .equals(), that is a default method from every object to compare objects (In this case, any instance of 'String' is an object so you must use .equals() to compare two Strings).

ik its been 7 months but I'll answer for anyone new here. .equals() is used to compare two Strings. == is for numbers.