Google is clamping down on Android apps that cause excessive battery drain

It can be tough to know when a phone is on its deathbed or when an app is just being an overt battery hog. Google is going to help users get to the bottom of things, according to a recent Android Developers Blog.

The company just announced the launch of a new metric for app developers that keeps an eye on battery usage. If a developer consistently runs afoul of Google's battery usage guidelines, a warning will pop up in the Play Store to alert end users.

This metric will keep a particular eye on so-called wake locks, which is when smartphones are prevented from entering sleep mode by battery-hungry apps that want to run background processes when the screen is off. Google says wake locks are a "heavy contributor to battery drain" and has developed a threshold for what is deemed acceptable ...