Google is raising the bar on Android app quality with a new focus on battery performance. On November 10, 2025, the company announced that its Excessive Partial Wake Locks metric—first introduced as a beta earlier this year—is now officially part of the Android vitals core technical quality standards. This change marks a major step in Google’s effort to reduce background battery drain and improve overall user experience across the Android ecosystem.
Partial Wake Locks
When an Android device’s screen turns off, the operating system normally allows the device to enter a low-power state. However, apps can request a partial wake lock to keep the CPU active so they can continue performing work in the background.
Wake locks are useful and sometimes necessary, for example during audio playback or when a user initiates a file transfer. But when an app holds wake locks for too long or too often, they become a significant source of unnecessary battery drain.
Google’s newly released metric identifies when apps are overusing wake locks and provides developers with detailed information to help correct the issue.
Under the new standard:
- A user session becomes “excessive” when an app holds more than two hours of cumulative, non-exempt wake locks within a 24-hour period.
- “Non-exempt” means wake locks that are not tied to clear, unavoidable user benefit.
- An app crosses the bad-behavior threshold if 5% or more of its user sessions from the past 28 days are considered excessive.
If an app fails this requirement, Android vitals will flag the issue so developers can investigate and take action.
Beginning March 1, 2026, Google will begin enforcing consequences for apps that exceed the threshold:
Apps may lose placement in key Play Store discovery areas, including recommendation surfaces. In some cases, the Play Store may display a battery-drain warning directly on the app’s listing. These changes could influence how apps appear and are recommended on Google Play.
A Step Toward a More Efficient Android Ecosystem
Google’s rollout of the Excessive Partial Wake Locks metric reflects a broader shift in how the Android ecosystem approaches performance and battery efficiency. By making this requirement part of the core technical quality standards and tying it to Play Store visibility, Google aims to encourage cleaner, more responsible background behavior across apps.
For developers, now is the time to review your apps, tighten background processing practices, and ensure your software is prepared for the March 2026 changes.
Visit Google’s Android Developer blog to learn more about the changes.
Leave a Reply