Survey: Millennials Check Amazon App Before Instagram, Gmail

The app millennials can’t live without is not Facebook, Gmail or Instagram, but the Amazon app, according to the 2017 U.S. Mobile App Report by Comscore.

The report is based on a survey conducted last month on more than 1,000 smartphone users.

While it is believed that millennials cannot live without social media, as they constantly check their newsfeed, it’s a surprise to see Amazon as the app the group can’t let go. During the survey, millennials were told to pick three apps that are the most essential and would be most difficult to go without, two of the most common responses were apps that were not in the social or entertainment categories. Amazon came first among millennials, at 35 percent, followed by Gmail, 30 percent, and Facebook came third at 29 percent.

You will find more statistics at Statista

The group also likes having the Amazon app accessible, with almost half of all millennials saying the app is on their home screen. Millennials’ use of the Amazon app is high, since the top app used across all age groups account for half of the time spent on apps.

Although millennials say they can’t live without Amazon, that doesn’t mean Facebook is left behind. Apps associated with Facebook, like Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, make up a big chunk. When asked what apps they couldn’t live without, 29 percent said Facebook, 18 percent said Messenger, 11 percent said Instagram and another 11 percent said WhatsApp, which means Facebook still dominates among millennials.

Millennials’ Mobile App Usage

Comscore found millennials drive the mobile app market. The report found millennials get excited over new apps, while older smartphone users don’t get as interested. Millennials are also the most engaged, spending the most time on smartphones instead of desktops and tablets compared to other age groups. Millennials spend more than two-thirds of their digital media time on smartphone app alone, surfing more than three hours a day on apps.

The report found Millennials are more into the reachability of apps on their smartphones, and they’re also more organized, putting apps in folders on their homescreen. Because of the use of folders, they have all their apps accessible within the first two screens on their device.

Millennials are into looks too, the report found. The group said one of the reasons why they might delete an app is if they didn’t like how the logos looked like on their home screen. The survey found 21 percent of millennials who had deleted apps said they got rid off apps in the past year for that reason.

Millennials might be struggling with large student loans and refraining from buying their own homes, but they’re pretty open with purchasing apps. The report found 64 percent of those ages 18-34 have paid for an app in the past year, while nearly one in five paid to download an average of at least one app every month. Millennials spend more on apps than other age groups. The survey found 17 percent of millennials had spent at least $20 on an app, compared to five percent among those 35-54 and two percent among those ages 55 and older.

News Events Pushing People To Allow More App Alerts

Sixty-three percent of millennials say they always or often agree to accept an app’s request to send them push notifications, compared to 23 percent of those ages 35-54 and 21 percent of those over 55 percent. Although millennials allow push notifications, 71 percent said they get annoyed when they get too many app alerts. The reason why they might allow push notifications in the first place could be because they don’t want to miss out on what’s happening within their apps, according to Comscore.

Overall the number of push notifications permissions have increased when compared to previous annual reports. The reason might be the uptick in news events, which urges users to stay on top of what’s going on. Last year, 27 percent of respondents said they always or often agreed to allowing push notifications. That number went up to 43 percent this year.