Two new studies making the rounds this week help confirm a trend that many young people already consider a no-brainer: email use is outmoded and messaging apps are where it's at. As the way we digitally communicate with one another continues to undergo a sea change, new evidence seems to suggest a large-scale pivot by youth toward mobile tools like WhatsApp [pictured above] and Viber to do their chit-chatting. And there's a noticeable age divide that increasingly makes traditional email seem like a tool for the middle aged and beyond. The studies are just the latest in a steady stream of updates on young people's use of social media, a subject of great interest to advertisers and companies that seek to hook consumers at an early age and hold on to them for life. The first study, an Android-only survey done by San Francisco-based app-analysts App Annie, paints a picture of a communications landscape where young people and their elders are taking completely different tacks when they want to connect with others. According to App Annie, email is practically a dinosaur among the younger set: those aged 13 to 24 now spend more than three times as many hours on messaging apps than those over 45 years old, says the study. Meanwhile, older users tend to fall back on apps that mimic desktop functions, like email and web browsers, says App Annie, which compiled the data from both real-world users and the firm's own data. The study found that across all Android Phone users in the United States, average daily time in apps increased by approximately 40 percent between 2014 and 2015. On Android phones, the average user aged 13--24 spent more time in apps overall, had more app sessions, and consumed significantly more data than any other age group. Mark Spoonauer, editor-in-chief of Tom's Guide, which follows mobile-app trends, said the findings aren't terribly surprising, given the fact that apps like Instagram and WhatsApp offer far more than just a way to exchange words. "Part of the reason why these apps are exploding in popularity," he said, "is because they're about much more than just messaging. These apps are multi-platforms and ecosystems in themselves. Snapchat, for example, isn't just about communicating with others but it's the ability to watch hours of video from content providers and other features they layer on top of the app. It's just a lot more fun to use them than traditional email." A separate report released earlier this month by market-research firm GlobalWebIndex suggests that messaging apps are clearly tools for the young and that Snapchat, which Facebook famously tried to buy in 2013 for a reported $3 billion, could claim the crown among younger users. GlobalWebIndex, which regularly presents its latest findings for social-networking behavior across 34 global markets, said in its more recent report that Snapchat boasted the youngest audience by far among messaging apps. More than 80 percent of its users are under 35, compared with 61 percent on WhatsApp and 65 percent on Facebook Messenger. The same report found that WhatsApp is the top messaging app with global consumers age 16 to 24, while Viber is most popular with people age 25 to 34. Whether adults will start to dump email for messaging apps in the future is not yet clear, said Spoonauer. "I wouldn't be surprised," he said, "if there continued to be a split" between emailing older folks and the app-using younger crowd." But one thing is clear, he said: "The more that older people do gravitate to apps like Instagram and Snapchat, the more younger people will flee to find something else. A lot of kids think that now that their parents have discovered Instagram, it's like 'we've gotta go someplace else fast.'" Source: Top Tech News
