(Credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Don't miss out on our latest stories. Add PCMag as a preferred source on Google.
Google Play will soon warn you about apps that cause excessive battery drain.
The update was announced earlier this week alongside Google's guidelines for developers on a new metric called "excessive partial wake locks." It was developed in collaboration with Samsung and is designed to help developers identify and address sources of battery drain.
Apps are allowed to use wake locks to prevent a device from entering sleep mode and blocking background activities when the screen is off. "These excessive sessions are a heavy contributor to battery drain," Google says.
If an app holds "more than 2 cumulative hours of non-exempt wake locks in a 24-hour period," it will be considered excessive, Google says. Furthermore, if over 5% of an app's user sessions are labeled as "excessive" within a 28-day period, the app will cross Google’s threshold for bad behavior and will be subject to subsequent actions.
Apps that violate Google's limits will appear less frequently in the areas where Android users discover new apps and games. In some cases, Google Play will also display a warning on the listing page: "This app may use more battery than expected due to high background activity."
(Credit: Google)The changes take effect for developers on March 1, 2026, which means the warnings could start appearing for end users shortly after.
It’s not all bad news for developers, though. They will be able to look for the "excessive partial wake lock" metric and address some common issues by following Google’s guidelines.