The Tap-Type-Swipe-Click Generation


on Jul 05, 2016
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When was the last time you stepped out of your home without your mobile and did not regret it? When was the last time you picked a newspaper to check the news? When was the last time you gave your smartphone a rest? Well, none of us clearly remember when the change arrived but it has definitely caught us.

We’re mentally, physically and emotionally so attached to our phones that we barely realise how these tiny devices have become our tech-limbs. We shop, play, watch, learn and socialise on these magic devices that have hooked us. The geniuses at Dscout sat down to exactly measure the number of times a user touches his/her mobile phone and understand the nature of these touches.

A total of 94 Android users were observed for 24 hours, 5 days a week to measure the intensity of mobile usage in our daily lives.

What comes next will leave you in utter disbelief and self pity.

Average users tapped on their phones 2,617 times a day and people under the category of ‘heavy users’ tapped on their phones 5,427 times a day. Dscout termed them as ‘touches’ which includes taps, types, swipes, and clicks. It sums up to an average screen time of 2.42 hours each day by an average user and 3.7 hours by a heavy user.

Yes, that’s astonishing and alarming, both!

We are continuously touching our phone screens and the only drop seen during the day is at predawn hours. The touches pick up once again at 7am and keep building up until dinner time.

But, let us charge ourselves guilty of checking our mobile phones even when we are half asleep between 2 am to 5 am. Our fingers barely sleep!

And just to add to your amazement, the above numbers have been captured for those times when the user actually unlocked his/her phone and touched. According to the study, 47% of touches happen on locked phone screens like changing songs, increasing/decreasing volume etc.

The one app that has got the generation touching so much is indeed Facebook!  Messaging and social media apps totaled 26% and 22% of interactions respectively, while internet search browsers comprised 10%. After Facebook (15%), native messaging (11%), and the home screen (9%), Chrome came in a distant fourth (5% to 8%).

The study clearly proves that social media is the most engaging and the most widely used means of communication. In this highly concentrated area of people that are so obsessed with their mobile phones, what are brands/businesses doing to capture their imagination via mobiles?

The pervasiveness of the mobile has acted as a much stronger catalyst than anyone comprehended a few years back. Mobile first is not just a vision, it’s the bare minimum that brands need to do in 2016. The focus of brands need to move from thinking downloads to thinking engagement. Providing people a reason to keep coming back. Again and again and again.  Has your brand created something unique to leverage the mobile revolution? Share with us and we will feature it in our next posts.

PS: You can read the complete article by Dscout here: http://blog.dscout.com/mobile-touches

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