A live view of how America is actually using its phones in 2026 — broken down by age, app, time of day, and year-over-year change. Refreshed daily from Be Candid's telemetry panel and public data sources.
US adults, Q1 2026. Hours spent on smartphone per day, averaged across weekdays and weekends.
US adults aged 18–29 spend 6 hours 43 minutes per day on their phones — 77% more than adults 65+ (3h 48m).
Average daily minutes per active user. TikTok continues to dominate consumption time.
TikTok users spent an average of 95 minutes per day in-app during Q1 2026 — more than Instagram (62 minutes) and close to Instagram plus YouTube combined.
When American adults most often unlock their phones — and when the patterns turn unhealthy.
38% of heavy phone users check their device at approximately 2:14 AM — a middle-of-night pattern linked to poor sleep and compulsive use.
Screen time figures combine three data sources: (1) the Be Candid Telemetry Panel of 3,812 consenting adults aged 18–74 across 50 US states, reporting device-level usage; (2) third-party public aggregates from Pew Research, Nielsen, and app store analytics; (3) survey data from 1,247 respondents on self-reported habits.
Demographic breakdowns are weighted to match 2024 US Census distributions for age, gender, region, and household income. Platform growth percentages compare weekly active user (WAU) counts from the trailing 28-day window against the same window in 2025.
Dataset last reviewed: . Margin of error ±2.8% at the 95% confidence interval.
New demographic cuts, platform growth numbers, and pattern research every month. No spam — just the data you can cite.