The news: US consumers are spending more time on social media. However, social apps are capturing a smaller share of their growing phone time.

• Average daily time spent on social apps increased 5.5% YoY in Q2 2026, per Apptopia.
• Meanwhile, social media apps’ share of time spent on mobile phones fell to 41.4% in July, down 5.1% from April, the biggest three-month decline since Apptopia’s research began in January 2023.

Social’s attention monopoly is weakening as alternative app categories emerge and users’ digital fatigue grows.

• Social media apps were the top app genre downloaded worldwide in 2025, per Sensor Tower, but downloads declined 11% YoY. Movie and TV show app downloads grew 278% YoY, followed by genAI and AI assistant apps (148%), utilities and file management apps (31%), and dating apps (26%).
• Nearly half (47%) of US adults say stress or anxiety has led them to delete a social media or messaging app, per Incogni.

What it means: The combination of non-social apps’ growing popularity and consumers’ concerns about online content shakes social media’s leadership status. Competition between Meta, TikTok, Snap, and others is for users’ overall time, not just with one another.

There’s also a measurement implication—rising total social minutes can make platform engagement look healthy while disguising lower share of attention. This means where attention is shifting may be a more valuable metric for teams who are determining where to spend.

Recommendations for marketers: As consumers redistribute their phone time across AI assistants, streaming, commerce, gaming, productivity, and other app categories, advertisers need to carefully consider where budgets go.

• Track attention beyond social and test campaigns in growing app categories like AI assistants, streaming, and dating.
• Add share of attention to media planning, and evaluate platforms based on their portion of consumers’ overall time and engagement.
• Develop attribution frameworks that compare performance across social ecosystems instead of relying on platforms’ own reported results.
• Adapt messaging to different environments to decrease ad repetition for consumers who use a wide variety of apps.

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