Starting in 2026, Android apps that cause battery drain from excessive wake locks will face reduced discoverability on the Play Store.
A great user experience is built on a foundation of strong technical performance. For developers, this principle is moving from a best practice to a direct commercial imperative with battery consumption now potentially impacting user acquisition and retention.
Excessive partial wake locks: A new metric for Android app performance
Google has elevated a new metric, “excessive partial wake locks,” to its set of core vitals in Android vitals. Co-developed with Samsung and refined using developer feedback, the new metric provides a clear definition for what Google considers battery-draining “bad behaviour”.
A partial wake lock prevents a device’s CPU from entering sleep mode, allowing an app to perform background work even when the screen is off. While necessary for many functions, their overuse is a primary source of Android battery drain.
Google now defines a user session as “excessive” if it accumulates more than two hours of non-exempt wake locks within a 24-hour period. Wake locks for clear user benefits, such as audio playback, are generally exempted.
Action will be taken when five percent of an Android app’s user sessions over 28 days are deemed as having excessive wake locks. The consequences for breaching this threshold are twofold and enforcement will begin on 1 March 2026.
First, Google “may exclude the title from prominent discovery surfaces such as recommendations”. For any app, a reduction in organic discovery is a direct threat to growth targets.
Second, Google may display a warning on the app’s store listing. This warning, which could state the app “may use more battery than expected due to high background activity,” poses a risk to reputation, user trust, and conversion rates. An enterprise-facing tool, such as a remote access or security app, especially cannot afford a public warning that implies instability.
This excessive wake locks metric is among a series focused on resource utilisation, indicating a broader direction from Google for the Android ecosystem.
Identifying and addressing issues in Android apps causing battery drain
To help developers meet these new standards, Android vitals has been updated. Developers will receive alerts on their overview page if their app exceeds the threshold.
The primary diagnostic tool is a new wake lock names table. This breakdown allows developers to pinpoint the source of battery drain by specific tag names. The console will display P90 and P99 durations; helping Androids developers identify the most problematic wake locks causing battery drain in their apps.
Google specifically advises developers to “investigate any wake locks with P90 or P99 durations above 60 minutes”. This provides developers with a data-driven path for remediation, moving debugging from guesswork to targeted action.
For mobile developers, this change requires an immediate audit of application performance. The 2026 deadline provides a runway for remediation, but complex enterprise applications with legacy background processes may require substantial refactoring.
Developer should take the following steps:
- Audit: Review the app’s performance immediately in Android vitals to baseline its standing against the new “excessive partial wake locks” metric.
- Diagnose: Use the new wake lock names table to identify and prioritise the most severe offenders.
- Remediate: Task development teams with refactoring code to eliminate or optimise long-running wake locks, consulting Google’s updated developer documentation and technical guides for best practices.
Failing to address battery drain issues from excessive wake locks is no longer just a quality assurance issue; it is a direct risk to the commercial viability and market presence of Android apps on the Play Store.
See also: Google vs Epic Games: New rules for Android developers inbound
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