Smartphone usage before and after Covid-19: a comparative study based on objective recording of usage data

Abstract

Most studies that claimed changes in smartphone usage during COVID-19 were based on self-reported usage data, e.g. collected through a questionnaire. These studies were also limited to reporting the overall smartphone usage, with no detailed investigation of distinct types of apps. The current study investigates smartphone usage before and after COVID-19. Our study uses a dataset from a smartphone app that objectively logs users' activities, including apps accessed and each app session's start and end time. These were collected during two periods: pre-COVID-19 (161 individuals with 77 females) and during COVID-19 (251 individuals with 159 females). We report on the top 15 apps used in both periods. Mann-Whitney U test was used for the inferential analysis. The results revealed that time spent on the smartphone has increased since COVID-19. Emerging adults were found to spend more time on the smartphone compared to adults during both periods. The time spent on social media apps has increased since COVID-19. Females were found to spend more time on social media than males. Females were also found to be more likely to launch social media apps than males. There has been an increase in the number of people who use gaming apps since the pandemic. Value: The use of objectively collected data is a methodological strength of our study. We draw parallels on the usage of smartphone with contexts similar to COVID-19 period, especially concerning limitation on social gathering, including working from home for extended periods. Our dataset is made available to other researchers for benchmarking and future comparisons.