Have People Started Getting Bored of Social Networking Apps? Probably Yes, Study Suggests

People have started spending less time on social media apps, and are turning to more private apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram, according to a new study carried out by London-based data research firm SimilarWebs.

The study analyzed the recent trends on how Android users across the world are spending their time on social media apps. The team analyzed data for four social networking apps including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, gathered from nine countries: the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Spain, Brazil, India, and  South Africa.

The data from Q1 2016 was compared with the data from Q1 2015.

The survey revealed that time spent on all four leading social media apps had fallen in almost all countries. Instagram app experienced the biggest decline in its global usage, down 23.7% year-on-year. Twitter usage was down 23.4%, and was followed by Snapchat 15.7% and Facebook by 8%.

The time spent by people on Facebook in Q1 2016 compared to last year declined in most countries. Germany was the only exception where the time spent was more or less the same as last year.

“Across the board, people are spending less time on their Social Media apps,” said Pavel Tuchinsky, a marketing analyst at SimilarWeb.

Snapchat usage in Brazil dropped from 11.23 minutes to 11.10 minutes. But in many cases, the drop was significant, for example, Twitter usage in France dropped from an average 19.80 minutes in Q1 2015 to 13.12 minutes in Q1 2016.

In the UK, Instagram experienced the biggest decline in usage. Snapchat however was successful in maintaining its popularity, with Britons still spending 15 minutes on the chat app every day.

Use of Telegram app in Britain saw a rise from 17 minutes last year to 24 minutes this year.

“We see a trend towards privacy, and towards more individual communications,” Tuchinsky said.

“Let’s take the growth of Telegram as an example. Also Whisper and Yik Yak where people can chat anonymously. It seems people are moving to more closed communities.”

According to experts, the popularity of the messaging apps is on the rise, and they are fast replacing public social media networks. Today, the top five messaging apps – Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Line, Viber, and WeChat have over 3 billion accounts across the world. There are over 1 billion Whatsapp users in the world.

The study also found that the number of installations of the big four social media apps on Android phones worldwide dropped by about 9%. Snapchat experienced the most prominent drop of 56% in number of installations in South Africa from March to March. Snapchat also saw the highest increase on installs, this time in Brazil, where installations rose 22% from March to March.

Instagram also experienced a rise in installs in many countries including Germany, France, and the US. However, it saw the biggest loss in India, with number of installs dropping from 32% to 19%.

“While these Social Media apps showed a drop in installs, some messaging apps have shown an increase in Android installs,” the study reveals.

“In the US, for example, Facebook’s Messenger app rose 2% March to March, while WhatsApp rose from being installed on 15% of Android devices in March 2015 to 20% in March 2016.”