It’s not exactly a secret that Google’s applications are extremely popular on Android but new insight obtained by Android Headlines reveals some rather interesting facts about the state of the mobile market in the United States. Based on estimates from analytics service App Ape, the top ten Android applications based on monthly active users in the country is mostly filled with Google-made solutions; seven of them, to be exact.
The only three apps that do not belong to Google are Facebook and Samsung’s apps: Messenger, Facebook, and Samsung Gallery.
Five of the apps listed here now have more monthly active users compared to a month ago, while the rest declined to a degree, and those differences are actually quite notable. According to the report, the top three apps on this list, Chrome, Google, and YouTube had less monthly active users in January compared to December, and are joined by Maps and Facebook. The most notable difference is seen with Maps, as it’s over a million monthly active users down, while it is followed by YouTube (-721,544) and Chrome (-520,587).
As far as growth is concerned, some of the apps on this list did improve quite a bit. The most notable improvement can be seen with Google Drive, as that app now has 1.7 million more active users than last month, and is followed by Gmail, which grew its active users by almost 1.6 million compared to a month ago.
Now, the sheer order on this list may surprise you, as Google occupies the first five spots; more specifically, Chrome, Google, YouTube, Gmail, and Maps are leading the race, in that order. Those five apps are followed by Messenger, Facebook, Google Drive, Google Photos, and Samsung Gallery. The only difference in terms of order, compared to last month, can be seen in the sixth place, as Messenger actually managed to surpass the main Facebook app and take the sixth place on the list, which is something that several other industry trackers already reported on late last month.
Google’s browser, Chrome, has 92,499,437 monthly active users in the U.S. and is by far the most popular stateside Android app by that metric, at least when it comes to software distributed via the Google Play Store, though it’s still highly unlikely any side-loaded app came even close to those numbers in any market.
Google’s dominance is not exactly surprising when it comes to this particular metric, as Google is the company behind Android, and many of its applications come pre-installed on Android handsets. Most of the Google-made apps presently dominating U.S. mobile charts come pre-installed on handsets and tablets; in fact, all of them do but Drive and Photos aren’t as ubiquitous as they once were when it comes to pre-loads, especially after the European Commission deemed the practice of tying app pre-installs to Android licenses anti-competitive and illegal last year.
As some of the categories wherein Google is so dominant on Android include things like email clients and Internet browsers, it’s unlikely the tech giant will be threatened in many segments anytime soon; after all, developing a new browser, navigation solution, or AI-infused photo management service capable of taking on today’s alternatives is a highly expensive affair few can afford and history already shows that those who have the financial pull to compete with Google’s app portfolio usually prefer running away from that fight.