The coronavirus pandemic is changing how people interact, and mobile devices have served as a social and entertainment lifeline as Americans stay at home and practice social distancing measures. This report looks at how US adults are using those devices.

The vast majority of mobile time is browsing online. We estimate that US adults will spend, on average, more than 4 hours with mobile internet, with 88% of that time spent within apps.

The Global Media Intelligence Report is a concise yet detailed compilation of data and insights about internet users’ traditional and digital media usage in 42 key markets worldwide. This 2020 edition covers the same range of metrics we featured in 2019, and the consistency of GlobalWebIndex’s methodology enables us to offer precise year-over-year comparisons; these provide vital indicators of exactly where and how quickly changes are happening, and where behaviors haven’t altered much.

The COVID-19 outbreak undermined many of our pre-pandemic US forecasts. Insight can now be gleaned by examining the difference between what we thought would happen as of February 2020 vs. what our forecasts now show.

This report describes how the pandemic, operating systems, and a new US president will affect mobile advertising.

The pandemic has brought an influx of new users for subscription OTT, live videos, and video games in 2020, but other activities such as social networking, mobile messaging, and digital video haven’t seen the same bump.

Hispanic consumers have endured exceptional financial volatility—mostly bad—during the pandemic. Even in normal times, this population is a moving target, with its diverse components evolving in financial strength, degrees of acculturation, and digital engagement.

For instance, the increase in mobile consumption in Canada is still substantially less than in the US. Using a smartphone to watch video is done at a much higher rate in the US—83.2% of video viewers compared with 67.8% in Canada. This is related to the fact that mobile data is more expensive in Canada.

We now forecast that 189.0 million US adults will participate in digital banking this year, an unexpected additional uptick of 22.8 million people compared with our pre-pandemic forecast. Similarly, TikTok will gain an additional 20.5 million US users compared with our first projection. Which digital time spent forecasts increased the most?

eMarketer principal analyst Jeremy Goldman, forecasting analyst Peter Vahle, and vice president of content studio at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna discuss Spotify's strategic positioning as a complete podcasting ecosystem. They then talk about how much time Americans spend on their phones during their lifetime, why Alexa's asking follow-up questions, and what we can expect from the new "Apple One" bundle.