Facebook, Messenger Shine in Nielsen’s Top Apps of 2015

The flagship Facebook app and Messenger placed at Nos. 1 and 3, respectively, on Nielsen’s list of top smartphone apps of 2015 by users, creating a sandwich around second-place YouTube.

Messenger also posted the highest year-over-year change in users, at 31 percent, outpacing second-place Apple Music (26 percent).

Nielsen said 80 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers owned smartphones as of the end of September, up from 78 percent at the beginning of 2015, adding that 53 percent of smartphone users accessed their apps via Android, while 43 percent did so via iOS, 3 percent via Windows Phone and just 0.7