By this point in time the smartphone has become a thoroughly ingrained part of our day to day lives, but this doesn’t mean that we all use our devices for the same purpose. Some people prefer to use their phones for gaming, with video and entertainment serving as another major reason of smartphone usage. However, with all of that have been said and out of the way, the fact of the matter is that there is one type of smartphone usage that most users conform to, and this has to do with social and communication.
About half of the total amount of time spent on smartphones is spent on social and messaging apps, i.e. according to Appannie's recent report. A lot of this can be contributed to the fact that these were some of the first uses that people had for smartphones. Video and entertainment came later, and gaming definitely came much later because it was only recently that smartphones started to be taken seriously. However, just because this is the case right now doesn’t mean that it always will be. Indeed, the way that the latest generation of smartphone users, namely Gen Z, are using their favorite apps is changing.
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About half of the total amount of time spent on smartphones is spent on social and messaging apps, i.e. according to Appannie's recent report. A lot of this can be contributed to the fact that these were some of the first uses that people had for smartphones. Video and entertainment came later, and gaming definitely came much later because it was only recently that smartphones started to be taken seriously. However, just because this is the case right now doesn’t mean that it always will be. Indeed, the way that the latest generation of smartphone users, namely Gen Z, are using their favorite apps is changing.
"Socials apps — particularly those popular with Gen Z — are blurring the lines with Entertainment apps. Snapchat prioritized innovating for Gen Z, capitalizing on this generation’s “Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO) with disappearing messages, pioneering the “Stories” feature later adopted by other top social apps, as well as Augmented Reality and branded filters.", explained Appannie in its "State of Mobile 2020" report.The modern social app is blending entertainment and sometimes even gaming into the mix. The video and entertainment sector has been growing quite a bit, so much so that it has doubled in size the past few years. The percentage of time spent on video and entertainment has grown from 13% (from 2016) to 21% (in 2019) but the total number of hours spent on smartphones has doubled as well which indicates that even more growth could potentially end up being on its way. It will be interesting to see how this time ends up being split in the future.
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