UK's most popular 20 phone apps from Instagram to Netflix

The average Briton will check their phone more than 10,000 times in a typical year - but almost 4,000 of these instances are completely out of habit.

A survey of smartphone users has revealed we will unlock our phone 28 times each day, but we consider 10 of these compulsive acts, namely checking the device with no particular goal in mind.

One in 10 phone enthusiasts even confess to opening their device more than 60 times in a 24-hour period.

Just over a third of smartphone users would describe themselves as addicted to checking their device.

In the survey of 2,000 smartphone users, Facebook was identified as the app we feel compelled to check in with most regularly.

Free instant messenger service WhatsApp took second in the countdown followed by Google email client Gmail. Online auction house Ebay, video sharing service Youtube and Facebook Messenger all made it into the top ten.

However, when asked which app they considered to be most useful to them, Facebook was unseated from the top spot by Google Maps. WhatsApp and Gmail both appeared ahead of the social media giant in terms of utility.

In the social stakes, the average Brit has two social media apps downloaded on their phone and 40 per cent named Facebook as their favourite social app, followed by Instagram and Twitter.

Over a third of smartphone owners, surveyed by OnePoll.com, use their phone as their preferred method of browsing the internet with just 32 per cent using their laptop instead.

As for total phone usage, we will spend 58 minutes checking our devices daily.

The average user has uninstalled three apps in the last six months, and one in six currently have an app on their phone they would like to uninstall but can’t figure out how to.

And despite using them every day, seven per cent of Brits couldn’t tell us what ‘App’ – an abbreviation of ‘Application’ – was short for.

It also emerged that on a typical day a smartphone user will access their favourite app 12 times, spending 17 minutes each day using it.

"Our smart devices have become an essential part of modern life, and checking them regularly is second nature for most users," said Greg Tatton-Brown, spokesperson for online casino Casumo.com. "However the instances of compulsive checking are much higher than we would have imagined, showing our phones are as much a habit as they are an aide to our busy lifestyles and an immediate source of entertainment, from wherever we are."

SWNS