Google Play will penalize battery-draining apps that abuse Wake Lock, with warnings and reduced visibility. Samsung-backed metric rolls out March 1, 2026.
© E. Vartanyan
Google has introduced a new Google Play policy designed to spot apps that drain smartphone batteries excessively. The changes take effect on March 1, 2026, according to Android Authority. The company plans to crack down on developers whose apps keep a device awake without good reason, blocking it from entering deep sleep.
If an app frequently relies on Wake Lock and refuses to let the phone idle in the background, it faces penalties. Google will stop recommending such titles and will add a clear notice on their store listing warning about elevated background activity and higher battery usage. The message is clear: power hogs will lose visibility.
The policy builds on Google’s existing technical quality metrics, which already track freezes and crashes. Power efficiency now becomes another core yardstick. Working with Samsung, Google devised a specific metric to judge whether an app abuses battery resources. Any app that keeps a device awake for a combined total of more than two hours per day without real need will be treated as problematic.
Wearables have different thresholds: an app will be flagged as too power-hungry if it burns more than 4.44% of charge during one hour of active use. Titles that exceed these limits may receive a warning badge—or even be made unavailable—on Google Play. That should push developers to rein in aggressive background behavior.
Google said that since launching beta testing of the algorithm in April, it has gathered extensive feedback from developers and used it to improve the accuracy of its power-consumption assessments.