Google Play has started flagging apps that can drain your battery quickly
Google has started adding warnings to Google Play about apps that can noticeably drain battery power due to background activity.
Google has started adding warnings to Google Play about apps that can noticeably drain battery power due to background activity.
According to 9to5Google, the rollout of the new feature started on March 1, 2026 and will last for several weeks. The text appears on the page of such applications: the application may use more battery than expected due to high background activity. In parallel, Google is updating the indicators for developers so that they can better see how often their applications «wake up» the smartphone in the background.
These are situations where an app in the background is waking up and running too often, even when the screen is off and the user is not doing anything. As a result, the processor doesn’t go into power saving mode as it should, and the battery drains faster. These are the scenarios that Google is now tracking and flagging on store pages.
If an app consistently exceeds this threshold, it may receive a warning on the page. Google also warns that such apps may be less likely to be featured and recommended on Google Play, meaning they may be harder to find through the store’s «tips.»
At the same time, the company has provided exceptions for services that really need and understand the user’s work in the background. In examples, Google mentions music playback, geolocation work, and data transfer that the user starts himself. For developers, this means one thing: if an application keeps the phone active in the background for no apparent reason, it can affect both its rating in the store and its visibility for new users.
Google announced last year that it would strengthen «technical» quality signals in the Play Store, and battery is one of the main topics for Android users, because it is background activity that often imperceptibly reduces battery life.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how Google announced a major change to the distribution and monetization rules on Google Play: developers will be given more freedom in choosing payment solutions, will simplify the installation of third-party app stores, and will introduce a new commission structure with lower rates for some scenarios.
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