Facebook and Google are winning the app war

Smartphone users spend more time with apps they've installed from Facebook and Google than with any other company, according to new research published today by Forrester.

The company surveyed 2,000 smartphone owners between October and December 2014 to find out which apps they were using most. The poll excluded apps that ship with operating systems, so apps like Apple's Mail, iMessage, Calendar, and Safari browser are not included.

Of the apps they chose to download, users spent 13% of their total time in Facebook's apps, and the bulk of that time (11.5% of total time spent) is spent doing social networking - probably Facebook's main app and Instagram. The rest is split evenly between communication - most likely with messaging apps like Messenger and WhatsApp - and news reading, presumably through the main app.

Google has the second most-used collection of apps, taking up 12% of users' total time. Most of this time (4.8% of total time spent) is on TV and video, presumably with YouTube.