As smartphones have become indispensable personal devices, the number of smartphone users has increased dramatically over the last decade. These personal devices, which are supported by a variety of smartphone apps, allow people to access Internet services in a convenient and ubiquitous manner. App developers and service providers can collect fine-grained app usage traces, revealing connections between users, apps, and smartphones. We present a comprehensive review of the most recent research on smartphone app usage analysis in this survey. Our survey summarizes advanced technologies and key patterns in smartphone app usage behaviors, all of which have significant implications for all relevant stakeholders, including academia and industry. We begin by describing four data collection methods: surveys, monitoring apps, network operators, and app stores, as well as nine publicly available app usage datasets. We then systematically summarize the related studies of app usage analysis in three domains: app domain, user domain, and smartphone domain. We make a detailed taxonomy of the problem studied, the datasets used, the methods used, and the significant results obtained in each domain. Finally, we discuss future directions in this exciting field by highlighting research challenges.

中文翻译：

---

智能手机应用使用分析：数据集、方法和应用

随着智能手机成为不可或缺的个人设备，智能手机用户的数量在过去十年中急剧增加。这些由各种智能手机应用程序支持的个人设备使人们能够以方便和无处不在的方式访问互联网服务。应用程序开发人员和服务提供商可以收集细粒度的应用程序使用跟踪，揭示用户、应用程序和智能手机之间的联系。我们在本次调查中全面回顾了有关智能手机应用程序使用分析的最新研究。我们的调查总结了智能手机应用程序使用行为的先进技术和关键模式，所有这些都对包括学术界和工业界在内的所有相关利益相关者产生了重大影响。我们首先描述四种数据收集方法：调查、监控应用程序、网络运营商、和应用商店，以及九个公开可用的应用使用数据集。然后，我们系统地总结了应用程序使用分析的相关研究在三个领域：应用程序领域、用户领域和智能手机领域。我们对所研究的问题、使用的数据集、使用的方法以及在每个领域中获得的重要结果进行了详细的分类。最后，我们通过强调研究挑战来讨论这个令人兴奋的领域的未来方向。