A new innovative experiment commissioned by Direct Line Home Insurance reveals that men are proving “it’s good to talk,” spending more time chatting on the phone than women.  Men spend 66 per cent longer talking on their phone than women – equivalent to 10 minutes more each day. When it comes to overall phone usage, men spend an hour longer each day using their phones than women.  The average male smartphone user spends 2 hours 44 minutes talking, texting and using other applications on their phone, while women spend on average one hour forty one minutes.  

The social experiment saw researchers load software onto smartphones that recorded every single interaction users made with their devices.  It analysed every app opened and how many times people interacted with it, how long they spent browsing the web and how much time was spent talking and texting. 

The study revealed women are more likely to communicate via instant messaging than a traditional voice call.  On average women spend 17 minutes a day sending and receiving instant messages and texts, compared to just 15 minutes of talk time.  Men also spend 17 minutes instant messaging every day.

Female participants in the study spent more time on their phones playing games than men -13 minutes per day compared to nine minutes.  Amongst both sexes the three most-used apps remain the same, however, with Facebook, voice calling and WhatsApp Messenger filling out the top three apps.

Katie Lomas, head of Direct Line Home Insurance, commented: “This experiment shows how we love to communicate, with men and women spending over half an hour every day talking and messaging on their phones. Smartphones have also helped drive up the number of women that have taken up gaming, with games such as Kendall & Kylie specifically targeted at this demographic.”

“Because people are so attached to their phones we have made it a feature of our policies that these devices can be replaced as quickly as possible if they are damaged or stolen.  People can either claim for a replacement device or for the cost of the item if they wish to upgrade to the latest handset or replace it themselves.”