Evidence to support common application switching behaviour on smartphones.

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Network Science
• Behavioral Psychology

Background:

• Smartphone usage analysis often focuses on screen time and specific application use.
• App switching behavior is an understudied area providing unique insights into user interaction patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate commonalities in smartphone user behavior through app switching patterns.
• To analyze the network structures formed by application transitions.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of a dataset comprising smartphone usage behavior from 53 participants over six weeks.
• Construction and examination of app switch networks to identify structural similarities.
• Network analysis to characterize features such as small-world properties and popularity decay.

Main Results:

• Strong similarity found in the structure of app switch networks across diverse users and usage volumes.
• App switch networks exhibit small-world and broad-scale network characteristics.
• A rapid popularity decay in app switching suggests preferential attachment influences next-app choices.

Conclusions:

• App switching behavior demonstrates predictable, common patterns despite individual differences in app selection and usage frequency.
• Network analysis of app switching provides a valuable lens for understanding user behavior beyond traditional metrics.
• Preferential attachment is a likely mechanism governing sequential application usage on smartphones.