Facebook was the most used app in the US during the first nine months of 2013, registering 103.4 million unique users per month, according to market intelligence firm Nielsen.

Photo sharing app Instagram, which is also owned by Facebook, was the fastest growing title in the top 10, with unique users increasing 66 per cent year-on-year. It was the seventh most popular app during the period, with 32.0 million unique users.

Apple’s Maps, ranked eighth with 31.9 million users, saw the second-biggest growth at 64 per cent, having overcome the issues that dogged the service when it was first introduced alongside iOS6 in September 2012.

In comparison, the Facebook app saw users increase 27 per cent year-on-year.

Google dominated the list after Facebook. The second most popular smartphone app was Google Search, with usage increasing 37 per cent to reach 76.0 million users.

This was followed by Google Play (73.7 million unique users per month, up 28 per cent year-on-year), YouTube (72.0 million, up 28 per cent), Google Maps (68.6 million, up 14 per cent), and Gmail (64.4 million, up 29 per cent).

Twitter came in tenth place with 30.8 million users, up 36 per cent, just behind financial service app Stocks, which also had 30.8 million unique monthly users.

Alongside the growth in app usage, US smartphone penetration increased from 56 per cent at the beginning of the year to 65 per cent of mobile subscribers by October.