We touch smartphones at least 2,617 times a day: Study

Eighty seven percent of participants checked their phones at least once between midnight and 5 a.m.

Eighty seven per cent of participants checked their phones at least once between midnight and 5 a.m. (AP)

As smartphones become centre nucleus of our lives, a new study says that we touch our smartphones 2,617 times a day on average -- and the heaviest smartphone users are clicking, tapping or swiping on their devices 5,427 times a day.

The research firm Dscout, which specialises in consumer reactions to products, recruited 94 Android device users and installed special software on their smartphones.

The tool tracked each user's "interaction" over five days, all day.

"By every interaction, we mean every tap, type, swipe and click. We're calling them touches," commented Dscout in a blog post on Thursday.

Long usage sessions are rare-mostly Netflix and reading. In general, people prefer lots of little sessions with breaks in between.

Eighty seven percent of participants checked their phones at least once between midnight and 5 a.m.

Messaging and social media apps totaled 26 per cent and 22 percent of interactions respectively, while internet search browsers comprised 10 percent, the post noted.