Google Play’s technical-quality warning means an app may have performance problems—such as crashes, freezes, or excessive battery use—on your device or across its users. It is a signal about technical quality, not by itself a claim that the app is malicious or unsafe. The warning may be specific to a phone model, and Google says it appears only in some cases.
What the warning tells you
Google uses Android technical-quality data to help determine how apps appear in Play. When an app exceeds a bad-behavior threshold, it is likely to be less discoverable. In some cases, Google may also show a warning on the app’s store listing so users can set expectations and consider alternatives. A threshold breach does not guarantee that every user will see a warning, and it does not mean the app is blocked or removed.
The warning concerns how reliably or efficiently an app behaves, rather than whether Google has identified it as malware. Google’s published examples of technical signals include crashes, apps that stop responding, and battery-related behavior.
Why the original warning focused on your phone model
In October 2022, Google announced a Play Store warning for apps whose user-perceived crash rate or user-perceived ANR rate exceeded 8% on a particular phone model. Google said the initial warning would begin appearing on November 30, 2022. That 8% figure described the original per-model crash and ANR policy; it is not a universal threshold for every current technical-quality signal.
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A phone-model-specific measure can explain why an app listing might show a warning to some users but not others. An app can have problems concentrated on a particular model even if its performance across the broader user population is better. Conversely, a warning based on a wider population-level metric is not limited to one model.
What Google measures now
Google’s current Android vitals documentation describes a broader set of core technical metrics than the original 2022 announcement. These include stability, battery, and memory measures. Google generally evaluates the previous 28 days, although it may act sooner after a spike. The thresholds differ by metric and, for some metrics, by device scope.
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| Signal | Published bad-behavior threshold | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| User-perceived crash rate | More than 1.09% overall; more than 8% on a phone model | Overall and per phone model |
| User-perceived ANR rate | More than 0.47% overall; more than 8% on a phone model | Overall and per phone model |
| Excessive partial wake locks | More than 5% | Overall |
These are the thresholds stated in Google’s current Android vitals documentation; they should not be read as guarantees that every app crossing one will receive a visible listing warning. Google says technical quality can affect discoverability and that warnings appear only in some cases.
Crashes and ANRs
A user-perceived crash is an app crash that affects the user experience. ANR means “application not responding”: Android detects that an app has stopped responding for long enough to trigger an ANR event. Google’s published thresholds distinguish overall performance from performance on an individual phone model, so the 8% per-model threshold is not interchangeable with the overall threshold.
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Battery use and partial wake locks
A partial wake lock lets an app keep the device’s processor running while the screen is off. Google began rolling out battery-related technical-quality treatments on March 1, 2026. Its excessive partial wake-lock definition is a non-exempted wake lock held for at least two hours on average while the screen is off in more than 5% of user sessions during the past 28 days.
Google describes exemptions for system-held wake locks with clear user benefits that cannot be further optimized. Its examples include audio playback, location access, and user-initiated data transfer. The 5% threshold is therefore specific to this battery signal; it is not a general crash or ANR limit.
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How complete is the data?
Android vitals is not a census of every Android user or installation. Google collects data from users who opted in to automatically share usage and diagnostic data, and the data covers only a subset of devices and Android versions. Google also excludes technical issues on uncertified device models and app versions not installed through Google Play.
Google says Play Console displays the previous 90 days of Android vitals data; the Play Developer Reporting API provides three years, and the data is updated daily. Those reporting windows are distinct from Google’s general 28-day evaluation period. A metric therefore describes the data Google has available under these coverage rules, not necessarily every affected user.
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What to do if you see one
- Read it as a quality signal. It indicates a potential technical problem, not a standalone security verdict.
- Consider your device. If the issue is tied to a phone model, another model may not experience the same behavior.
- Check the listing and alternatives. Google says the warning is intended to help set expectations and let users consider apps with higher technical quality.
- For developers, inspect Android vitals in Play Console. Review the affected metric, time period, and device breakdown before deciding what to fix; overall and per-model rates can point to different problems.
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