Google announces Alerts for Battery-heavy Android apps

Google's latest policy will inform users of apps that drain their smartphones quickly.

Google's key visual

A way to avoid battery-draining apps

The tech giant has announced that starting March 1, 2026, the Play Store will begin displaying alerts for apps that may significantly drain a phone's battery due to high background activity.

The policy is based on a new metric, called "excessive partial wake lock," which was first introduced in a beta version earlier this year. Google developed this metric in collaboration with Samsung, and it is now available to all Android app developers.

An example of notification

According to the company, a "bad behavior threshold" has been established to identify apps that keep a device awake for prolonged periods through excessive wake locks. Apps that exceed this threshold may be excluded from Play Store recommendations, and a warning about potential battery drain could be displayed on their store listing.

Google defines the threshold as an app holding more than two hours of "non-exempt wake locks" within a 24-hour period. Wake locks for essential functions, such as audio playback or active data transfers, are not counted toward this limit. 

An app is also considered to cross the threshold if excessive wake locks are observed in 5 percent or more of its user sessions over a 28-day period.

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Source: Google