Beating out popular own-brand apps like Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube, Facebook holds the title as the most actively used Android app. Market research firm Nielsen on Monday published the findings of a month-long study to determine the most-used Android apps currently available for the platform. The study made use of Nielsen’s proprietary on-device monitoring software, which has been voluntarily installed by thousands of panelists across the country. Beyond the Android Market itself, Facebook was the most actively-used app on the Android platform over the past 30 days in all age brackets. Among users aged 18 to 24, Google Search was the second most used app in the firm’s new study with 77% of panelists having opened the app over the past 30 days. Gmail and Google Maps followed with 79% a piece, and YouTube slid in behind them with 64%. Following the suite of Google apps was Pandora Radio with a distant 30%. A similar study conducted by Nielsen in July found that Facebook was the third most popular app behind Google Maps and Gmail. Read on for more.

Among users aged 25 to 34, 81% used Facebook over the past 30 days while 80% used Gmail. Google Maps was used by 79% of panelists and Google search was used by 78%. YouTube followed with 56% and the most actively used non-Google app other than Facebook was Angry Birds at just 29%. Users aged 35 to 44 painted a similar picture. Facebook and Gmail were tied at 77% followed by Google Search (75%), Google Maps (73%) and YouTube (51%). Angry Birds then followed with a distant 35%.

Interestingly, Amazon’s third-party app store ranked in the top-15 most actively used apps across all age groups. The Amazon Appstore was No.14 among users aged 18 to 24 with 14%, No.11 among users aged 25 to 34 with 22% and No.10 among users aged 35 to 44 with 24%.

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