Top Ten Most Used Apps During The COVID-19 Lockdown

2020 would go down as an unusual year in this century as no one would have predicted the amount of change which would happen in such a short amount of time.  While the year began normally like any other in the past, things began to go haywire when news about a new virus without a cure, began afflicting people in the Wuhan province in China.  While the rest of the world thought the virus was an isolated incident, little did anyone guess the same virus would go on to cripple the world economy and medical infrastructure.  

As governments across the world tried to race against time in a desperate effort to check the spread of the COVID-19 virus and declared nationwide lockdowns and curfews, consumer interests and dynamics underwent a drastic change.  The lockdowns meant the crippling of various industries like transportation (Uber, Grab,) events industry (parties/music events,) hospitality (tourism) and logistics (airlines, hotels) to name a few.  The people had to make do with what they had available in hand at their homes which is a smartphone, television, computer and an internet connection.

Social media platforms, fitness applications, gaming applications, video conferencing applications, news applications and grocery delivery applications saw a drastic increase in the downloads as well as usage.  In this article we bring to you the top ten most used applications during the lockdown period.  This list is compiled in no particular order and we also understand the list might not apply to everyone.

1) TikTok

TikTok ended up being a favourite pastime for millions of Indians as well as other nationalities.  The viral app allows users to create short videos which can be shared across multiple platforms.   Following the lockdowns Indians were at their creative best on TikTok till the viral app was banned by the government citing data security concerns.

2) Zoom

When the entire country was in lockdown it meant, workplaces and offices were closed.  So how did organisations adapt to this change? They conducted meetings both internal and external on the video conferencing app called Zoom.  The video conferencing was so widely used worldwide that its stock price grew by a whopping 170% by June 2020.

3) Houseparty

The fun app is a social networking application which lets users gather around in a virtual conference call in order to socialise.  Houseparty had over 10 million downloads on Google Play Store and even more on Apple Store (Apple would not divulge the exact number.)  Houseparty is currently the third most downloaded app on the iOS app store in the United States, behind Zoom and TikTok, and comes top in the United Kingdom during the lockdown.

4) Aarogya Setu

Aarogya Setu was an app designed by the Indian government to trace the COVID-19 virus and to analyse the spread of the virus.  The app reached more than 100 million installs in 40 days since Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it mandatory for it to be installed on smartphones of Indians.  The app also provided useful information about nearby hospitals, quarantine protocols and nearby COVID clusters and hotspots.

5) Instagram

The social networking application saw its screen time jump by almost an hour on average.  Before the lockdown an individual used to spend on an average of 150 minutes on Instagram and Facebook.  However, after one month of lockdown this jumped to 280 minutes a day according to a survey done by Business Today.

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6) Twitter

Twitter, although a social media platform, is quite useful to learn about the latest news.  Anything latest happening can be first found on Twitter and a quick hashtag will direct a user to the news.  This was the reason why Twitter saw a lot of usage as people all over the world tried to stay on top of how the world is coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.

7) PUBG

PUBG was India’s most loved game during the lockdown.  PUBG was played by a whopping twenty two lakh people in the month of June 2020 according to Hindustan Times.  The battle royale game was enjoying a great run before the Indian Government banned it citing data security concerns.  The game developers have since then opened a new corporate office in India as well as data centers and will re enter the Indian market again.

8) Whatsapp

Whatsapp is probably the most widely used texting platform in the world.  Data from insights and consulting firm Kantar revealed a 40% increase in usage that grew from an initial 27% bump in the earlier days of the pandemic to 41% in the mid phase.

9) Netflix

Netflix usually enjoys a lot of screen time as people tune in to watch their favourite shows to while away their time.  However, with the lockdown, people ended up being cooped up at homes and ended up binge watching a lot of content.  According to a pan India study conducted by Velocity MR, Netflix saw a 65% rise in subscriptions.

10) Amazon Prime Video

Amazon Prime Video is a part of the Amazon Prime package which gives customers access to a ton of content and is also the biggest competitor to Netflix.  According to a pan India study conducted by Velocity MR, Netflix saw a 67% rise in subscriptions.

Let us know if we missed out on any other applications which you think should be included in this list in the comments below!