With remote work and learning becoming the order of the day in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic forcing people to stay indoors, consumers, on average, are spending 4.2 hours a day on apps globally, which is 30% higher than the same time two years back.

According to app analytics firm App Annie, the biggest surge has been witnessed in India as people spent 80% more time in apps in Q1 2021 than they did in Q1 2019 in the country. In the January-March period this year, daily time spent passed four hours in the US, Turkey, Mexico and India for the first time, said App Annie in a report. In Brazil, South Korea and Indonesia, it was more than five hours.

“If we live in an attention economy, then there’s no doubt where people are currently directing their eyeballs. Our new data for Q1 2021 reveals that consumers are spending more time than ever in apps – and the surges in some countries have sent daily dwell times past five hours,” App Annie noted in the report. The top apps by downloads, consumer spend and monthly active users (MAUs) across Apple App Store and Google Play were TikTok, YouTube and Facebook in the January-March quarter, it mentioned.

“In Western markets, we can trace the rise of the two market-leading secure messaging products: Signal and Telegram. Signal places first in the UK, Germany and France, and fourth in the US,” it further said. Meanwhile Telegram appears at ninth spot (the UK), fifth (France) and seventh (the US). As in so many areas, China’s breakout app chart is unique and quite different from the rest of the world.

The App Annie report further said, “If there’s a theme within it, it’s the emphasis on video sharing and editing. TikTok is at number 1, while Kwai is at 2. Meanwhile, CapCut – a video editing app for TikTok is at 7. iQIYI, a video streaming service, is placed at 3.” Homegrown short video platform MX TakaTak was also seen as the fastest growing app by downloads in the quarter. TikTok led the top downloads chart, followed by Facebook and Instagram, it said.