Battery anxiety is a huge issue with smartphones in this day and age. While many smartphones have started to offer more efficient and larger batteries — like the newly announced Galaxy S26 Ultra — they continue to deal with an array of battery-related problems. This leads people to look for easy ways to extend their phone’s battery life, which often requires jumping through a few hoops. Now, though, Google is working on a way to make it easier than ever to tell if an application will drain your battery more than it should.
This mostly started late last year, when Google shared a blog post detailing some of its plans to start implementing big changes to help Android users find applications that misuse or overuse the battery in smartphones and tablets. The goal, based on that blog post, was to come up with a solution for identifying applications that abuse the “wake lock” system built into Android phones. This system essentially allows for apps to keep the CPU in the phone or tablet running despite the screen on the device being turned off. Because the CPU continues to run, the battery in the device runs down much faster. Now, it seems Google is finally ready to debut its solution.
On top of rolling out new technical quality treatments to help mitigate to overuse of the wake lock system, Google says it will also start adding a disclaimer to applications that consistently exceed the limit of a stat called “Excessive Partial Wake Lock.” Further, if the issue persists, Google says it may even limit how those applications appear in the Play Store’s recommendations.
How this helps
The change is all part of Google’s ongoing initiative to improve battery drain in Android smartphones as a whole. While the company has instituted features into Android, like the Battery Health function, it is important for users to know when apps might abuse the battery life on their smartphone before they download those applications. Google showed what the warning might look like on an app’s page, and it’s pretty easy to see.
Beyond breaking down when an application abuses its access to the wake lock system, Google says it is also working closely with developers to help optimize applications that rely on background resources to ensure they aren’t draining your battery. In fact, the company actually mentioned WHOOP by name in the most recent blog post, noting that by working with the fitness-based accessory brand, Google has leveraged some of the recommendations it has instituted in recent updates to improve performance and battery draining from WHOOP’s related apps.
With so many of our apps relying on background information — social media, emails, etc all require background processes to keep up-to-date in real-time — Google can hopefully stave off some of the battery anxiety Android users might be feeling. This is especially important as we wait for more brands to adopt newer battery technology, like silicon-carbon batteries.
