Measurement firm Verto Analytics measured the cross device behaviour of nearly 5,000 UK adults in order to assess the monthly time spent on apps across a number of categories.

It revealed that time spent on communications and social media apps grew by 11.2 billion minutes ( 38%) over a period of six months (September to March). This makes it the fastest growing app category, accounting for 44% of all mobile app time. 

The next biggest rise was demonstrated by entertainment, which grew by 3.4 billion minutes ( 22%) to account for 21% of app minutes.

However, games, which is the next biggest category by time spent, saw the biggest decline, by 2.4 billion minutes (a drop of 16%). This drops its share of app time from 18% to 13%. 

“The continuous growth of messaging and social apps mean that the total app time is becoming dominated by just a few sectors, with the top three categories accounting for 78% of all mobile app time spent,” said Dr. Hannu Verkasalo, CEO of Verto Analytics CEO.

“This leaves the rest fighting over the scraps, which is going to get harder as app downloads are plateauing and there’s the impending rise of ‘hub apps,’ where people do more tasks within one app – be it messaging, shopping or ordering a taxi.

“Getting people to download your app is only about 10% of the battle; app creators and the brands that advertise on them are under increasing pressure to be one of those crucial eight and stay there.”