A new Google app called Android Pulse has quietly appeared on many Android phones, generating curiosity and confusion among some users. Strangely, the app appears as an update in the Google Play Store, even for users who never installed it.
But what is it?
If you take a look at the Google Play Store listing, Google says Android Pulse “facilitates rule distribution for anomaly detection in critical system resource consumption by the Android operating system and installed applications.” Put more simply, it’s a system-level diagnostic tool that runs in the background to monitor how the operating system and installed apps use resources like battery, CPU, and memory. This could help catch apps that drain the battery overnight or use far more processing power than normal, leading to lag.
It’s unclear so far what happens when Pulse identifies a problematic app. What we do know is that the app can’t be uninstalled and that it’s meant to run passively, without any input from the user.
Traces of Android Pulse have been seen in Android APKs since March under the package name “com.google.android.apps.pulse,” but this is the first time the app has surfaced more publicly. The rollout seems to have started on Pixel phones, though the listing shows more than 10 million installs already—likely because it was installed on users’ behalf.
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