Snapchat has overtaken Twitter for the first time when it comes to installed apps on Android devices in the U.S., according to new data from digital intelligence firm SimilarWeb.
As of the end of April, Snapchat was installed on 22.7 percent of U.S. Android devices, just above Twitter, which was installed on 21.8 percent of the devices. (Twitter didn't immediately return our request for comment.)
Analysts see Snapchat as a rising risk to both Twitter and Facebook, as more and more people spend time within its app.
"We are concerned that Twitter may be ceding potential and active users to sites such as Snapchat, which, with its photo- and video-based core model, may be better aligned with the use of smartphones in the 'selfie' era," said Argus analyst Jim Kelleher in an April 28 report.
During the same time, Facebook's suite of apps were the most popular social media apps, SimilarWeb told CNBC, and were installed at the following levels: Facebook (68.4 percent), Messenger (59.4 percent), Instagram (41.8 percent) and WhatsApp (20.9 percent). LinkedIn's app was found on 5.9 percent of U.S. Android devices, the researcher said.
SimilarWeb drew on data from a global panel of more than 250 million desktop and mobile devices, internet service providers, tens of thousands of websites and apps and individual companies. Its clients include Google, eBay, United Airlines and L'Oreal.
When it comes to time spent on the app, Snapchat is also ahead of Twitter. Snapchat users spent an average of 20 minutes and 20 seconds using the app daily. The average daily time spent using Twitter among its daily users is just 12 minutes and 21 seconds, the report found.
By comparison, the average daily time spent using Facebook's app was more than double: 46 minutes and 20 seconds. WhatsApp and Instagram are next at 29 minutes and 24 seconds, and 20 minutes and 29 seconds, respectively.
Both Snapchat and Twitter have above-average retention rates once they are downloaded, according to an earlier SimilarWeb report released in February that looked at 4 million global Android users.
After three days, both apps have an almost 50 percent usage rate. To put that in perspective, a typical app sees its average usage plummet to 23 percent within that same period. However, Facebook and WhatsApp have an average usage rate of 80 percent and 79 percent, respectively, in the three days after installation.
Across all platforms, mobile device users installed almost 156 billion applications worldwide in 2015, according to International Data Corp. This is expected to grow to more than 210 billion installs in 2020, the firm estimated.
Snapchat reports it has more than 100 million daily active users globally and those users view more than 10 billion videos daily. More than 60 percent of daily active users create content every day, the company recently reported. Snapchat reaches 41 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 34 years old in the U.S.