The main problem with smartphones, especially when looking at the Android world, is represented by battery life. This is an aspect that brands are investing in in multiple ways: on one hand software is being better optimized, on the other hand hardware is being looked at with the implementation of silicon-carbon batteries.
Google is also doing its part with a particularly useful tool, already teased last November. Starting from March 1st, the new consumption policy has come into effect: now the Play Store will warn users when they come across apps that are too power-hungry!
Currently the feature is rolling out and will reach everyone over time: the new Google alerts are present within the app pages in the Play Store, signaling which apps consume battery life excessively.
The new Google Play Store system aims to identify apps that abuse wake locks, i.e., the processes that keep the smartphone active even when the screen is off. This is a crucial feature for certain apps — for example for music playback — but abuse can lead to excessive battery drain.
“This app may consume more battery than expected due to the high background activity”, this is the message that will appear for software deemed problematic, as read on Google’s blog. The wake lock mechanism is necessary in certain cases, but beyond a certain threshold it constitutes abuse.
Precisely the “Negative behavior threshold” is reached when partial wake lock occurs for at least two hours per day, with the screen off, in more than 5% of user sessions in the last 28 days. Useful features such as audio playback, location access (desired) or data transfer (user-initiated) are excluded.
In this way you can avoid apps that drain too much battery (without a concrete justification) and surely this tool will be a useful incentive to push developers to optimize their apps to the fullest.
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