Experience 9 (Source)

Yes it is true, but it's a little flaky.

First, you only get "Usage xp" (uxp) for items you hand craft. If you made it in a factory, you don't get uxp.

For "charged" items (stim packs, food, maybe tracker droids) you get xp when the last dose is used up. So if you make a stack of stimBs, the xp gain is when the stack gets used up completely. For food at least (both chef and artisan) the uxp I've seen is 50% of the original amount you earned crafting it. So I make some travel biscuits (earning 20xp), give them to someone, they eat all 5 doses, then I get another 10xp. This same behavior is also seen when you use up components crafted by someone else (although the % earned may be different).

Second, it seems like you only get the xp when you're in the same general area as the person using your item. This probably has to do with cross-server communication (since each planet is actually running on multiple machines).

Finally (and I'm not sure if this is valid for everything) you may get uxp for using your own items. For food, at least, I earn "Food Crafting xp" (or general crafting xp for artisan foods) if I'm the one who finishes off the stack. In fact, when grinding I've found it's easier to make up food components (which have no filling) then eat them, getting 150% of the xp from just crafting it, more than you get if you just do practice mode.

The rules for continuous use items (weapons, armor, crafting tools, survey tools, etc) are probably different.