14 DAY TRIAL // The most popular smartphone applications for 2016 do not belong to any handset makers, but that makes perfect sense. Facebook and Google have so many apps and services that it would have been a surprise if neither of the two had topped the list of popular smartphone apps.
Reputable research firm Nielsen has just released a study that looks back at what were the most used smartphone apps throughout the year in the United States.
As some of you might already know, US is Apple's main market, but even there Android rules the smartphone market.
According to Nielsen, the top US smartphone operating systems by market share is topped by Android with 53% followed closely by Apple's iOS with 45% market share.
Windows Phone still accounts for 2% market share in the United States, while BlackBerry has around 1% market share. All these numbers are for Q3 2016, though we don't believe there have been major changes in Q4.
As far as smartphone apps go, Facebook is by far the most used application in the United States with more than 146 million average unique users.
Ranking second is the other popular application developed by Facebook, Messenger, which has nearly 130 million average unique users.
The list continues with five Google apps: YouTube (114 million users), Maps (106 million users), Search (104 million users), Google Play (100 million users), and Gmail (89 million users).
Instagram comes in on 8th place with 75 million average unique users, followed by Apple Music (68 million users) and Amazon App (66 million users).
We doubt the situation is much different worldwide, as Facebook and Google seem to own some of the most popular smartphone apps these days. The more reason for both companies to improve these apps by adding new features as often as possible.