Smartphone users in the US, China and the UK spend more than half of their device time using mobile apps, with messaging in a distant second place, according to research from Arbitron Mobile.

US users spend 54 per cent of their time spent using devices on apps, compared with 55 per cent for China and 58 per cent for the UK. But, due to higher overall device use, the US generates the most in terms of minutes of use, at 2,202 minutes per user per month (nearly 37 hours), compared with 1,975 minutes in the UK and 1,293 minutes in China.

Messaging accounts for 22 per cent of use in the US and the UK, and 23 per cent in China. Arbitron defines this as “email, instant messaging, general messaging MMS messaging and SMS messaging”, without stating if this figure includes third-party apps such as WhatsApp, Line or KakaoTalk.

The rest of the time is spent browsing (14 per cent in the US, 13 per cent in the UK, and 12 per cent in China), and for voice use (11 per cent in the US, 7 per cent in the UK, and 10 per cent in China).

Arbitron did not state the size of the samples used to generate its results.