Doomscrolling is real and it has consumed us this year. According to analytics firm App Annie’s year-end report, Android users spent 3.3 trillion hours stuck to their screens — up 25% from last year.
However, the report suggests that mindlessly scrolling your Twitter or Instagram feed wasn’t the biggest contributor to this stat. On the contrary, it was spending time on video conferencing and work apps such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
App Annie observed that due to the pandemic and work-from-home culture, users spend twice as much time on business apps this year than compared to the last. The trend might continue in 2021 as workplaces will continue to opt for remote work despite the potential availability of vaccines
There might be some other factors in users spending more hours with their devices in 2020. Android downloads grew 10% year-on-year to cross the 90 billion mark. Games took a 45% share in these apps — up from 40% last year — as compared to a 30% share on iOS. Unsurprisingly, India, Brazil, and Indonesia were the largest contributors to Android app downloads.
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If you look at the top chart of apps, TikTok gained massive rank boosts across downloads, consumer spending, and monthly active users categories. Video conferencing apps such as Zoom and Google Meet were also in the top 10 charts for downloads.
Despite the pandemic-forced reduction of face-to-face romantic rendezvous, Tinder remained on top of the consumer spending chart. The app introduced features such as global swiping and video calling for virtual dates to cater to the lockdown.
Multiplayer games such as Among Us and Ludo King gained a ton of traction as friends wanted an engaging experience online. These games gained positions in the monthly active users chart as well.
App Annie believes that certain trends of this year will continue in 2021. People will download more video streaming apps and mobile revenues will cross $120 billion.
You can check out the full App Annie year-end report here.
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Published December 9, 2020 — 17:00 UTC