People Are Now Spending A Mind-Boggling 21 Minutes Per Day On Instagram

Facebook announced a lot of updated user numbers during its third quarter earnings call Tuesday evening. For example, 1.35 billion people now use Facebook every month, and 703 million people use Facebook on their mobile devices every day.

But Instagram's updated monthly active user metrics were missing. And when asked directly about Instagram's monthly active users (MAUs), CFO Dave Wehner declined to answer.

There's speculation that Instagram has now eclipsed Twitter in terms of MAUs, which would put it somewhere in the range of 280-300 million.

Mark Zuckerberg intends to push Instagram's number close to 1 billion over the next five years. One crazy stat he mentioned is that globally, the average Instagram user spends 21 minutes on the app per day. "This is a strong figure compared to the industry and a good sign that Instagram's strategy is on the right path," Zuckerberg said during the earnings call.

"The top priority for Instagram is to grow from 200 [million users] to more and eventually connect billion or more people. I think that that's something that should be possible and that's what I'm really focused on and excited about now."

According to mobile analytics company Flurry, the average person in the U.S. spends 2 hours and 42 minutes per day on their phones, and 86% of that time is spent in apps. Gaming applications represent 32% of that figure and social and messaging apps represent 24%.

Here's a chart with June ComScore numbers that show the top mobile apps in terms of time spent in each age group. Facebook is the top app among every age group, and Instagram is high among a few demographics as well.