• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, September 6, 2016

What did we do with our smartphones before the advent of apps? Make phone calls?!

Whatever it was, we’re doing a lot less  -- or doing it with an app, new research shows.

Indeed, apps now account for half of all the time average Janes and Joes spend on their smart devices, comScore finds.

That’s up pretty significantly from 41% over just two years, the research and tracking firm calculates.

“The high usage of smartphone apps compared to other media touchpoints shouldn’t come as much of a shock when you think about your daily online behavior,” comScore senior analyst Adam Lella notes in a new report.

“Chances are when you want to know what’s happening around the world, or in pop culture, or in your friends’ lives, your first move is to reach into your pocket and open one of the number of different social apps on your phone,” according to Lella.

“The convenience factor is simply too powerful,” Lella added. “You almost always have your smartphone on you, and apps allow you to immediately access a service in one simple tap of the screen.”

In the near term, smartphone apps are likely to grow their share of digital beyond the 50% mark, Lella predicts.

That said, desktop and tablets will maintain “critical roles” in consumers’ online consumption for the foreseeable future. Yet Lella and his colleagues suggest that publishers and advertisers understand the power that smartphone apps will increasingly wield.