The handheld device has become a multi-faceted tool for digital activity, as users can do a host of things, such as sending text messages or taking pictures, that do not require being online. These non-voice data activities constitute a broader measure of handheld use. As the Pew Internet Project found in a December 2007 survey, most Americans (58%) by then had done one of ten activities on a cell unrelated to making a phone call.

The following table shows how the handheld device has worked its way further into the daily routines of many Americans. Our April 2009 survey shows that 85% of adult Americans have a cell phone and, of this group, fully 81% of them have at one time used it for a purpose other than making a phone call. On a typical day, now more than half of cell users (52%) have used it for a non-voice data activity, such as texting, emailing, snapping a picture, or any one of the other seven activities about which they were asked.

Sending text messages remains the mainstay activity for cell phone users; they are more than twice as likely to send a text on the average day as do anything else. Snapping a photo on the cell phone comes in as the next most popular activity, trailed significantly by playing a game, emailing, or access the Web for information.