• Around 30 minutes of this is spent making calls
• The under-30s spend the most time on their smartphones

The smartphone is an integral part of everyday life for the majority of its users. The average usage time is currently around 150 minutes per day. This is the result of a representative survey of 1,007 people in Germany aged 16 and over commissioned by the digital association Bitkom. According to the survey, the younger people are, the more time they spend on their devices. On average, 16 to 29-year-olds spend 182 minutes a day on their smartphones, compared to 158 minutes for 30 to 49-year-olds. The 50 to 64-year-olds spend 148 minutes a day on their smartphone and the over-65s spend 96 minutes. “Smartphones are an indispensable companion for many people,” says Dr Sebastian Klöß, Head of Consumer Technology at Bitkom. “Whether for information, entertainment or contact with friends and family, smartphones help us stay connected to the world and support us in many situations.”

The smartphone is only used to make calls for a short period of time: On average, smartphones are used for voice calls for 29 minutes a day. There are also age differences here: Younger people between the ages of 16 and 29 use their smartphones for an average of 36 minutes per day, 30 to 49-year-olds for 31 minutes, 50 to 64-year-olds for 27 minutes and senior citizens aged 65 and over for around 17 minutes.

Just over half (55 per cent) of smartphone users state that they would have lost track of many friends long ago without their device. 83 per cent can no longer imagine life without a smartphone.

Methodological note: The data is based on a survey conducted by Bitkom Research on behalf of the digital association Bitkom. It involved a telephone survey of 1,007 people in Germany aged 16 and over, including 769 smartphone users. The survey took place in the period from week 1 to week 3 2024. The overall survey is representative. The questions were: “How long do you think you use your smartphone per day?”, “And how long do you think you use your smartphone per day to make calls?” and “To what extent do the following statements apply to you or in your opinion?”