Google is set to implement new measures aimed at enhancing battery performance on Android devices by scrutinizing apps in the Google Play Store that exhibit high background activity and excessive battery drain. This initiative targets applications that surpass a defined “bad behavior threshold,” potentially flagging them for their negative impact on battery life, which could subsequently affect their visibility within the Android ecosystem.
Developers are encouraged to adapt their applications to align with a new core Android Vitals metric, known as “excessive partial wake locks,” by March 1, 2026. This metric has been in beta testing since April 14 and was developed in collaboration with Samsung, marking a significant step towards improving user experience across the platform.
According to Google, this initiative is part of a broader strategy to introduce new metrics that provide deeper insights into app resource utilization, ultimately enhancing user experience throughout the Android ecosystem. Apps that exceed the threshold for excessive wake locks may be labeled as battery drainers on Google Play, which could lead to their exclusion from prominent discovery features, such as recommendations.
Source: Google
What Google will measure
The Android Vitals system will monitor partial wake locks, which refer to the cumulative duration an app maintains background activity while the device’s screen is off, preventing it from entering sleep mode. Measurements will be taken per user session and aggregated over a 28-day period, focusing solely on non-exempt wake locks—those not held by the system, related to audio playback, or initiated by user data transfers.
An app’s behavior will be deemed excessive if a single user session accumulates over two hours of non-exempt wake locks within a 24-hour timeframe. Google has established that the bad behavior threshold is set at 5% of an app’s user sessions over the preceding 28 days. Developers whose apps exceed this threshold will receive notifications on their Android vitals overview page.
Source: Google
This policy shift is expected to compel developers to refine their applications, minimizing unnecessary wake locks and addressing those initiated by external libraries and SDKs. When queried about the potential for this feature to identify spyware, adware, and malware—often notorious for preventing devices from sleeping to maintain network connections—Google clarified that this was not its primary purpose.
“App security is a top priority on Google Play. However, the primary intent of this metric is to enhance battery performance and technical quality to improve our users’ experience,” a Google representative stated. The focus remains on addressing “bad behavior” in terms of excessive resource consumption, regardless of whether an app is malicious. By enforcing these thresholds, Google aims to identify and take action against applications that misuse system resources without delivering user value, although the initiative is not specifically designed to target malware.
