Covid-19 increases hours spent on mobile apps

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, people are relying on social media platforms to connect with their friends and families. Data from consulting firm Kantarshows that WhatsApp has seen a 40% increase in usage as people have been looking to stay connected. In addition, Spain registered a 76% increase in time spent on WhatsApp.

To limit the spread of Coronavirus, Telecom operators have been collaborating with doctors to provide teleconsultations or to take appointments remotely. On March 2020, Health and Fitness apps show a 40% increase compared to the first two months of the year, according to Business of Apps. On March 22, the top breakout Health and Fitness Apps was ‘Home workouts- no equipment’s’. Consumers spent $59 million on health apps and $36 million on fitness apps, according to the same source.

Game apps have also emerged during the lockdown. App Annie, a top app analytics company published a report on mobile app usage amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The report states that during quarantine, Brazil and India were the largest markets for games downloads. On the other hand, the United States and China were the largest markets for IOS games. However, people in the United States, Japan and South Korea used Google play to download their preferred game apps.

Throughout the second quarter of 2020, weekly game downloads remained at 1 billion. Over $19 billion- 85% on Google Play and 65% on iOS-were spent on purchases through the app stores in Q2 2020, according to App Annie’s report. ‘Save the girl’ was the number one downloaded app.

A new report issued by Trend Micro shows that the malicious app rates on Android rose to 718,000 at the end of the second quarter of 2020. According to a report from techradar.com, Jeffrey Geoffrey Cleaves, Head of Secure-D at Upstream commented: “ We’ve seen a sharp increase in bad actors publishing ‘leisure’ apps on the Google Play Store, which trick users into subscribing for premium services.”