We’ve all been there one time or another. Your phone’s battery is at 20% by noon, and you have no idea why. More often than not, a badly behaved app running in the background is the culprit.
Till now, there was no way to identify such apps without installing and using them first, and checking their battery power usage metrics in the Settings app. Google is now taking steps to address the issue.
Starting March 1, 2026, the Google Play Store began rolling out “wake lock technical quality treatments” to identify apps causing battery drain. In plain English, Google will start flagging apps that are excessively draining your battery in the background, and those flags will be visible right on the app’s Play Store listing.
If an app consistently crosses Google’s “Excessive Partial Wake Lock” threshold, it can even get pulled from the Play Store’s recommendation lists. That means fewer people will stumble upon it, which is a strong incentive for developers to clean up their act.
What is a wake lock, and why should you care?
A partial wake lock is a tool developers use to keep your phone’s CPU running even when the screen is off. Used responsibly, it’s fine. Used carelessly, it quietly eats through your battery while your phone sits in your pocket.
The problem is that many developers have been using wake locks unnecessarily, not because they’re malicious, but because the alternatives are poorly understood or their app code is not optimized. Google plans to fix that by holding apps accountable publicly and providing them with necessary feedback.
What this means for you
The next time you’re downloading an app, look out for any battery-related warnings on its Play Store page. It’s a quick, easy signal that the app might not play nicely with your battery life.
For people experiencing mysterious battery drain, this update will not fix the issue overnight. The rollout is gradual, but over the coming weeks, the Play Store should become more transparent, leaving battery-hungry apps with nowhere to hide.
