People spent 4.8 hours a day, or almost a third of their waking hours, on their mobile last year, according to new research.
App Annie’s recently released “State of Mobile” report revealed that consumers worldwide spent a record 3.8 trillion hours on mobiles in 2021.
In the UK, the average time spent on the phone per day in 2021 was four hours, less than the global average of 4.8 hours for the year.
But mobile usage in the UK has fallen from three hours a day in 2019 to 3.7 hours a day in 2020.
Overall, 2021 has been “record-breaking” as consumers continue to embrace mobile lifestyles and move away from big screens, the company said.
In particular, usage of Chinese video-sharing app TikTok has seen a 90% increase in the world outside of China, compared to 2020.
In the UK, the average time spent on mobile per day in 2021 was four hours, less than the global average of 4.8 hours for the year
“Mobile is the best ever and the must-have device of the future,” said Theodore Krantz, CEO of App Annie.
“The silver screen is slowly dying as mobile continues to break records in virtually every category: time spent, downloads and revenue.”
Company and app rankings shown in App Annie’s “State of Mobile 2022” report are based on various download, consumer spending and usage estimates obtained from its market intelligence.

More time than ever is spent on mobile apps – 4.8 hours a day, or about a third of average standby hours, according to App Annie
Globally, the company found that consumers spent $170bn (£124bn) on apps, a 19% increase on the previous year, while app downloads grew. continued to grow by 5% year-on-year to reach a total of 230 billion. for the year.
Meanwhile, global consumer spending on dating apps topped $4.2bn (£3bn), a 55% increase on 2019.
Restaurant apps hit a new milestone with 194 billion ordering sessions in 2021, up 50% year-over-year.
App Annie also found that the total number of hours spent watching video streaming apps increased by 16% globally from pre-pandemic levels.
In the UK, the total number of hours spent streaming increased by 17% comparing 2019 to 2021, just above the global average of 16%.
“Despite access to larger screens, consumers are still watching content on mobile,” the company says in the report.
“Competition is intensifying in the space and exclusive content is a way to attract new viewers.”
Interestingly, China’s time spent using streaming apps fell 46% over this period, largely due to consumers increasingly turning to short-form video apps like TikTok and Kwai.

In the UK, the total number of hours spent on video streaming apps such as Netflix increased by 17% comparing 2019 to 2021, just above the global average of 16%. China and India have seen the use of streaming apps plummet as citizens in both countries turn more to short-form video apps such as TikTok. (TikTok usage in the UK is also growing, but not enough to significantly affect time spent on video streaming apps)

Globally, the average number of monthly hours spent per user on TikTok increased from 13.3 in 2020 to 19.6 in 2021
Worldwide, TikTok was the “big winner” in terms of user engagement among the top five social apps – ahead of Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram (all owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta company).
TikTok and Facebook both saw 19.6 average monthly hours per user in 2021, but TikTok has seen tremendous growth – as that figure was up from the 13.3 average monthly hours in 2020.
Elsewhere in the report, App Annie calls avatar apps, which allow people to create a 3D animation of themselves, “a growing trend.”
Among the three popular avatar social apps – Litmatch, Wright Flyer’s REALITY and ZEPETO – downloads were up 160% year over year.
Demand for social avatar apps has surged amid interest in the “metaverse” – a collective shared virtual space featuring avatars of real people – in 2021.
Interest in metaverses was particularly strong in the second half of the year, when Mark Zuckerberg announced the renaming of his company from Facebook to Meta as part of a new focus on the concept.