--- title: A mysterious app just showed up on your Android phone,... description: An app called Android Pulse has quietly been installed on more than 10 million Android devices since March, surfacing publicly only when a blank, unlabeled... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-mysterious-app-just-showed-up-on-your-android-phone-and-it-s-watching-your-battery-q10ihlwcp twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A mysterious app just showed up on your Android phone, and it’s watching your battery | daily.dev og:description: An app called Android Pulse has quietly been installed on more than 10 million Android devices since March, surfacing publicly only when a blank, unlabeled... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-mysterious-app-just-showed-up-on-your-android-phone-and-it-s-watching-your-battery-q10ihlwcp og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Q10ihLWCP.png og:image:alt: A mysterious app just showed up on your Android phone, and it’s watching your battery og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A mysterious app just showed up on your Android phone, and it’s watching your battery **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An app called Android Pulse has quietly been installed on more than 10 million Android devices since March, surfacing publicly only when a blank, unlabeled icon appeared in Play Store update queues over a weekend. Google describes it as a diagnostic tool with no user interface that detects anomalous battery, CPU, or memory consumption by the OS or installed apps. It mirrors the earlier, similarly silent rollout of Android System SafetyCore in February 2025, which also triggered spyware fears despite no supporting evidence. The EU's Digital Markets Act (Article 6(3)) requires gatekeepers to allow easy uninstallation of apps, but exempts essential system applications that cannot be offered standalone, a carve-out that plausibly covers Pulse. The concern raised is not that the app is malicious, but that millions found out about a system-level tool from an update queue five months after it began shipping. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the Android Pulse app that suddenly appeared on my phone? Android Pulse is a headless diagnostic tool from Google with no user interface that detects unusual system resource consumption, such as battery, processor, or memory anomalies, caused by the Android operating system or installed apps. It has been distributed since March, shipped in seven builds via APKMirror before reaching the Play Store, and is now installed on more than 10 million devices, with no announcement accompanying its rollout. _daily.dev helps developers stay ahead of silent platform changes like unexplained system app rollouts._ ### Does the EU Digital Markets Act require Google to let me uninstall system apps like Android Pulse? Not necessarily. Article 6(3) of the Digital Markets Act requires gatekeepers to let users easily uninstall applications, but it carves out essential system applications that cannot be offered on a standalone basis, and a headless diagnostic service like Android Pulse plausibly fits that exemption, leaving it outside the rule's clear reach. _Developers tracking platform regulation can follow DMA enforcement gaps on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Your Android phone has a hidden dashboard that shows which apps are spying on you](https://daily.dev/posts/your-android-phone-has-a-hidden-dashboard-that-shows-which-apps-are-spying-on-you-lzqwxeenn) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Fake Bahrain Alert App Deploys Android Surveillance Malware](https://daily.dev/posts/fake-bahrain-alert-app-deploys-android-surveillance-malware-hriig9g2h) · Dark Reading · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How Android Malware Makes Itself Unkillable and “Un”-Uninstallable](https://daily.dev/posts/how-android-malware-makes-itself-unkillable-and-un--uninstallable-vkumk8xij) · InfoSec Write-ups · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Google’s Early Access is creating a blind spot for malicious apps](https://daily.dev/posts/google-s-early-access-is-creating-a-blind-spot-for-malicious-apps-z1kbtrhgj) · CSO Online · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Raising the bar on battery performance: excessive partial wake locks metric is now out of beta](https://daily.dev/posts/raising-the-bar-on-battery-performance-excessive-partial-wake-locks-metric-is-now-out-of-beta-suqgae3yt) · Android Developers Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#google](https://daily.dev/tags/google), [#android](https://daily.dev/tags/android), [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-mysterious-app-just-showed-up-on-your-android-phone-and-it-s-watching-your-battery-q10ihlwcp) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A mysterious app just showed up on your Android phone, and it’s watching your battery","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-mysterious-app-just-showed-up-on-your-android-phone-and-it-s-watching-your-battery-q10ihlwcp","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-mysterious-app-just-showed-up-on-your-android-phone-and-it-s-watching-your-battery-q10ihlwcp"},"datePublished":"2026-08-24T23:15:57.347Z","dateModified":"2026-08-24T23:16:19.476Z","description":"An app called Android Pulse has quietly been installed on more than 10 million Android devices since March, surfacing publicly only when a blank, unlabeled...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c60b1e6cdf5b6e7e81d8ede21b9e8be7?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c60b1e6cdf5b6e7e81d8ede21b9e8be7?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-mysterious-app-just-showed-up-on-your-android-phone-and-it-s-watching-your-battery-q10ihlwcp","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"google,android,privacy","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"A mysterious app just showed up on your Android phone, and it’s watching your battery"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-mysterious-app-just-showed-up-on-your-android-phone-and-it-s-watching-your-battery-q10ihlwcp#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is the Android Pulse app that suddenly appeared on my phone?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Android Pulse is a headless diagnostic tool from Google with no user interface that detects unusual system resource consumption, such as battery, processor, or memory anomalies, caused by the Android operating system or installed apps. 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