We Surveyed 200 Smartphone Users. Here’s What Their Phones Say About Behavior and Intent
3 min. Read
What if your phone knew you better than you know yourself?
Ever wonder how many apps are on your phone? Or how many times a day you check it?
According to our survey, 54% of people have between 30 and 89 apps installed.
21.5% check their phones more than 15 times per hour.
These are not just statistics. They are signals. Each app, interaction, and behavioral pattern tells a story. A story of preferences, habits, intent. This is real behavioral data. And it’s happening on-device, in real time.
What if you could tap into this intelligence without knowing someone’s name, email, or location?
Rethink what you actually need to know.
Most marketers still fixate on identity. But what if presence and context were more powerful than personal data?
Your phone knows if you’re at home, at work, or commuting, not by tracking your GPS but by identifying patterns, such as Wi-Fi networks and usage behavior.
You do not need an address. You need insight.
Intent Edge shifts the focus from who the individual is to what the device knows they are doing. It is time to change the lens.
Insights from the Survey
Intent HQ surveyed 200 smartphone users to uncover just how deeply embedded their devices are in their daily lives.
Highlights include:
21.5% check their phones more than 15 times per hour.
54% of people have between 30 and 89 apps installed
69.5% use mobile apps as their primary source of weather information
37% get news from social media
Nearly one third of respondents install or uninstall apps at least once per week
App install and uninstall behavior correlates with age, giving us a non-invasive way to model demographic traits
This is not panel data that is weeks old. This is live, actionable behavioral intelligence.
Swipe to preview the survey results:
How many apps do you have on your device?
How often do you use your phone during the day?
What is your primary source of information?
Ask Yourself
What if your marketing was shaped by behavior rather than assumption?
What could you learn from app presence, install frequency, and contextual triggers?
What would you do differently if you knew when your customers were commuting, relaxing at home, or actively browsing news or entertainment apps?
If you could deliver hyper-relevant experiences at the right time, in the right place, without needing to know who someone is, would you do it?
Introducing Intent Edge
Without collecting personal data or tracking your identity, Intent Edge can understand context in motion. From app usage to Wi-Fi patterns and ambient signals like Bluetooth or accelerometer activity, your device captures moments that reveal intent.
In this short video, you’ll see how different signals, whether someone is commuting, shopping, or working out, help define not who a person is, but what they need, when they need it. It’s not about profiles. It’s about presence. And knowing when not to engage is just as powerful as knowing when to act.
Future-Proofing AI
Model collapse happens when AI learns from recycled information. Intent Edge avoids that trap.
It uses three principles:
Real-world behavioral data
Continuous feedback and retraining
High-volume signal variety across billions of devices
When your intelligence is grounded in what people are actually doing, it stays current and sharp. That is the difference between meaningful insights and stale assumptions.
Welcome to the future of business innovation. In our comprehensive eBook, we unveil the transformative power of Edge computing and equip you with the knowledge and strategies needed to stay ahead in today’s rapidly evolving landscape.
At AntiCon 2024, Intent HQ’s Chief Revenue Officer, Jonathan Woolf, and Ali Malek, Executive Director of Data Science at OMD EMEA, took the stage to explore hyper-personalization in the age of AI. From leveraging Edge AI for privacy-first personalization to using Causal AI to identify Persuadable audiences, their session offered actionable strategies for turning data into meaningful customer experiences. Missed it? Watch the full talk to learn how AI is revolutionizing marketing.
Having worked in Marketing for over 25 years, much of it in relationship marketing and loyalty, I am not sure that many days have gone by where the words brand and sticky, or some synonym for sticky haven’t been mentioned in the same sentence, PowerPoint slide or plan on a page.
Understanding who your customers really is already a must for any telco in today’s data-driven, highly competitive environment. However, how they do this will have to evolve in many cases to keep up with the growing pace and scale of the challenge.