In 2024, an average of more than 500 hours per person was spent on mobile apps, says Sensor Tower's report. — AFP Relaxnews
Internet users have never been so connected to their smartphones. According to a recent study by Sensor Tower, mobile users spent over two trillion hours on social media applications in 2024, an increase of 6% on the previous year. A trend that shows no sign of abating.
The study, entitled "State of Mobile 2025”, reveals that social media and messaging applications continued to dominate the mobile landscape. In 2024, mobile users spent around 6.6 billion hours a day, or around one hour a day per person, on social networking applications.
Messaging applications come second with 607 billion hours, followed by browsers at 330 billion hours.
Streaming platforms and social networks
Among the apps with which consumers spend most of their time, social networks, messaging apps and browsers come out on top in the top 3. TikTok tops the "social media” category, WhatsApp is first among messaging apps and Google Chrome among browsers.
In terms of revenue, however, video streaming apps rank ahead of social media. "Streaming apps tend to monetize through subscriptions, and the space remains very competitive with nine different apps accounting for at least 3% of overall streaming revenue (and none above 15%). Social Media, on the other hand, is dominated by TikTok and YouTube, which alone take more than 70% of the subgenre's consumer spend. TikTok in particular has revolutionized non-game monetization, offering in-app purchases that allow users to tip creators or promote their content,” reads the study.
When you combine the time spent on social media and messaging applications, users spent three trillion hours in 2024, compared with 2.8 trillion the previous year. This growth is notably due to growing use in India, whose time spent on social media apps has more than doubled since 2021, the study points out.
This spectacular rise can be explained not only by the increase in the number of smartphones in the country, but also by the growing appetite for interactive content and online communities, with Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp topping the list of the most downloaded applications in India in 2024.
Despite global growth, some markets are showing signs of saturation. In the US and the UK, time spent on social media applications decreased slightly in 2024. However, US users still spend almost 90 minutes a day, compared with 85 minutes for their British counterparts.
Although they aren't in first place, artificial intelligence apps such as ChatGPT or Character AI have performed well this year, posting over 300% growth in time spent over the year. Consumers spent over 7 billion hours familiarizing themselves with these new technologies. This kind of app could easily make it into the top ten in terms of overall consumer spending by next year, according to the study's authors.
The ChatGPT app was also the fastest-growing in 2024, riding the wave of enthusiasm for artificial intelligence. Other new technologies also seem to have seduced consumers in 2024. In addition to AI, users turned more to digital wallets, spending 21% more time on these apps. – AFP Relaxnews
