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Smartphone users globally, including in India, are slowly heading towards spending six hours or more a day on apps, and people in Indonesia and Singapore have now reached a stunning 5.7 hours a day on mobile.

In India, smartphone owners used their devices for an average of 4.7 hours per day in 2021, up from 4.5 hours in 2020 and 3.7 hours in 2019.

In the June quarter (Q2) this year, the Indian smartphone users, on average, still spent more than 4 hours a day on apps, according to new research by mobile app analytics platform App Annie.

"The huge gains in consumer attention earned during lockdown have not been diluted now that the physical world has opened up again. In fact, users have doubled down on time spent on smartphones," said the report.

The data reveals that consumers in three markets (Indonesia, Singapore, Brazil) now spend more than 5 hours a day in apps.

"Meanwhile users in 13 regions (Indonesia, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Russia, Turkey, the US, the UK) now commit to more than 4 hours per day," said the report.

"The high-growth regions are especially eye-catching. In the last two years, Singapore went from 4.1 to 5.7 hours. In Australia, from 3.6 hours to 4.9. Both represent a 40 per cent rise in time spent," said the report.

India was second in the top 20 mobile markets in terms of app downloads in 2021, accounting for nearly 27 billion downloads.

Smartphone users in most countries saw an increase in total hours spent watching video streaming apps in 2021.