You Spend One Entire Month out of the Year Using Apps, Study Says

According to a lengthy new trove of data that was collected and analyzed by App Annie, the average smartphone owner spends approximately two-hours and 15 minutes (135 minutes) per day engaging with the apps installed on their device. Not only is 135 minutes per day equal to about one full calendar month of the year, but the report goes on to cite that most “average users” have between 60 and 90 apps installed on their device, utilizing around 30 of them each month, while opening an average of nine apps per day, according to the data.

App Usage Across Countries

One the whole, app usage appeared to be highest in developed countries like China, Japan, France, and the United States — where the average smartphone owner has approximately 105, 100, 97, and 95 apps installed on their device, respectively. Meanwhile, noting the habitual nature of opening apps, the data found that, on average, smartphone owners living in the countries sampled opened an average of nine apps per day — with some, such as Brazil, India, China, and the United States surpassing the 10 apps per day mark.

Most Frequently Used Apps

“Utilities and Tools led the way thanks to numerous pre-installed apps, such as Safari on iOS and Google on Android,” said the report’s author, Eric Thompson, who added that “After pre-installed apps, some of the largest categories by average apps used are Social Networking, Communication, and Social. This underscores the continued importance of social categories to marketing efforts for all types of apps.”

The data further revealed that the average amount of time spent utilizing apps varied dramatically depending on the type of app being used. For example, the report cited that “Dating and Productivity apps” were among the most frequently used by measure of “active sessions per day,” with users opening those apps an average of four times per day.

iPhone vs. Android App Usage

Interestingly, the data also found that “iPhone owners play 30% fewer games than Android users.” Yet even despite the smaller number of iPhone users in comparison to Android users, Apple’s App Store still manages to generate considerably more revenue per year than the Google Play Store.

The data also revealed a mixed taste between the app usage patterns of iOS and Android users, respectively. For instance, categories like utilities, social networking, productivity and photo & video were most popular among iPhone users; whereas tools, communications, productivity and games were the top categories among Android users.