Federal managers like the idea of agencies providing mobile software applications, but only 15 percent of federal smartphone users have ever downloaded a government-built app, according to a recent survey.

Many federal managers, however, remain unfamiliar with what their own agencies are doing when it comes to deploying mobile apps, despite the growing number of mobile applications being made available by government agencies.

Nearly four out of 10 reported they were unaware the government had built any mobile apps and about two-thirds reported they didn’t know whether their agency had built or planned to build a mobile app.

The findings are part of a new survey by the Government Business Council, which is part of Government Executive Media Group.

Still, roughly two out of three federal managers said they favor the idea of agencies building mobile apps, according to the survey, in the belief that apps can provide better citizen services.

The survey represented the responses of 282 randomly selected federal officials from Government Executive’s subscriber database. About 95 percent of respondents are at the General Schedule 11 level or higher and 57 percent manage one or more employees.