Google and Samsung have introduced a new metric to identify Android apps that significantly drain battery life through excessive wake locks. This metric, developed in collaboration with Samsung, is coming out of beta, having been trialed since April 2025.
Wake Locks Policy Details
Wake locks are used by apps to keep a device active for background tasks. However, apps that exceed two cumulative hours of non-exempt wake locks within a 24-hour period per user session are tagged. A red warning may show on the Google Play Store: "This app may use more battery than expected due to high background activity."
If five percent of an app's user sessions over 28 days exceed this threshold, the app could face reduced visibility in the Play Store. Exemptions apply for necessary wake locks like those for audio playback or user-initiated data transfers.
Developer Tools and Implementation
The new policy could take effect from 2026-03-01. To aid developers, Google has rolled out debugging tools and detailed documentation to rectify excessive wake lock usage in their apps.
