Facebook-owned apps dominated user engagement across seven of its major markets, albeit with user preferences tending towards subsidiaries WhatsApp and Instagram over its core app, a study by market research company AudienceProject showed.

The research was conducted in July and August, and covered more than 16,000 people in the US, UK, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Messaging service WhatsApp was deemed the most important app for the majority of users in Germany (60 per cent), Finland (47 per cent) and the UK (24 per cent).

It was also found to be particularly popular with people in the UK aged between 26 and 35 years, with 85 per cent of users in the category using the app.

WhatsApp was also used on a daily basis by 89 per cent of its user base in Germany.

Facebook’s core app, meanwhile, proved the most popular in Denmark (25 per cent), followed by 19 per cent in Norway and 17 per cent in the US.

Notably, none of the respondents aged between 15 and 25 years named Facebook as the most important app to them, while the only country where users aged 26 to 35 was Denmark, where 30 per cent rated it at the top of their list of important apps.

Despite not leading the charts, Instagram ranked in the top four apps in every market covered, with increased engagement among people between 15 and 35 years old.