Best Apps for Android Based on Usage

Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and analytics around what consumers buy and watch, recently released the first mobile media rankings based on audience measurement data from the company’s new Nielsen Smartphone Analytics. This new service uses metered data from thousands of Android and iOS smartphones in the United States to report actual consumer behavior.

According to the first mobile audience measurement data from metered smartphone usage, after the Android Market app itself, apps for Facebook, maps and mail had the highest active reach among U.S. Android users above the age of 18. (“Active reach” is defined as the percentage of Android owners who used an app within the past 30 days.”)

While many of the top 20 apps showed similar active usage by both male and female Android smartphone owners, there were notable differences in active reach for social apps. Facebook’s mobile app saw an active reach of 81 percent for women Android smartphone owners compared to just 69 percent for male Android smartphone owners. Twitter also reached more women (16.5 percent) than men (13.4 percent). However, Google+, the newest social network, had more than twice the active reach among men (15.8 percent) than women (7.2 percent).

Outside of social media, apps like Kindle and Words With Friends had higher active reach among women, while Quickoffice Pro and the Amazon App store had higher active reach among men. Google Maps had a higher active reach among men, too: 77 percent active reach among men compared to 71.8 percent among women.

Click through for the top 20 Android apps ranked by usage, as identified by Nielsen.

Android Market — Overall Active Reach: 90.5%
Search and browse over 150,000 and apps and games available for download, organized by category, to customize your Android experience.

“Active reach” is defined as the percentage of Android owners who used an app within the past 30 days.

Google Maps  — Overal Active Reach: 74.6%
Download the latest maps from Google right to your phone.

Gmail — Overall Active Reach: 74.5%
Access all your email right on your phone.

Facebook — Overall Active Reach: 73.5%
Share status updates from your home screen, chat with your friends, check out your News Feed, review your upcoming Events, look at your friends’ walls and user info, check in to Places to get Deals, upload Photos, share links, check your Messages, and watch videos.

Google Search — Overall Active Reach: 71.9%
Get phone search results plus query and website suggestions as you type, and instant results for weather, stock quotes, local businesses, and more.

YouTube — Overall Active Reach: 51.4%
View online video via your smartphone.

Advanced Task Killer Free — Overall Active Reach: 26.1%
Advanced Task Killer is used to kill running apps and clear memory.

Angry Birds — Overall Active Reach: 25.9%
Use the unique powers of the Angry Birds to destroy the greedy pigs’ fortresses.

Quickoffice Pro — Overall Active Reach: 25.3%
Create, edit and share Microsoft® Office files.
Cost: $14.99

Pandora Radio — Overall Active Reach: 23.9%
Pandora radio is a personalized radio service that streams music on your phone.

The Weather Channel — Overall Active Reach: 17.8%
Animated radar & more. Download the power of The Weather Channel to your phone.

Amazon Appstore — Overall Active Reach: 17.7%
Download paid and free Android apps from Amazon.

Words With Friends — Overall Active Reach: 16.0%
A word-building game you can play with your friends.

Talk – Text to Voice — Overall Active Reach: 16.0%
Talk lets you convert text to voice using the Text-to-speech engine. Make your phone say anything you want. Languages: English and Spanish.

Twitter — Overall Active Reach: 14.9%
Follow your interests: instant updates from your friends, industry experts, favorite celebrities, and what’s happening around the world.

Barcode Scanner — Overall Active Reach: 13.9%
Scan barcodes on products then look up prices and reviews. You can also scan Data Matrix and QR Codes containing URLs, contact info, etc.

Adobe Reader — Overall Active Reach: 13.9%
Adobe Reader provides high quality, fast PDF viewing and interaction for your Android smartphones and tablets.

Angry Birds Rio — Overall Active Reach: 13.6%
In Angry Birds Rio, the original Angry Birds are kidnapped and taken to the magical city of Rio de Janeiro, where they eventually escape their captors and set out to save their friends.

Kindle — Overall Active Reach: 12.4%
Download Kindle books on your Android phone including thousands of free books. No Kindle required.

Google+ — Overall Active Reach: 11.8%
Real-life sharing rethought for mobile. Google+ is still in active development and not yet available to everyone. You need an invitation to sign in.