Google Has Sneaked a Mysterious New App Onto Your Android Phone — and Now We Think We Know What It Does

A mysterious app just showed up on your Android phone, and it's watching your battery

An app called Android Pulse surfaced in Play Store update queues at the weekend, though Google has been distributing it since March and it now sits on more than 10 million devices. It is a diagnostic tool with no user interface that flags software consuming unusual system resources. Millions of Android owners spent the weekend […] This story continues at The Next Web

What Is This 'Android Pulse' App Appearing on Everybody's Phones?

If you keep tabs on your Android app updates in the Play Store, you might have noticed something odd: You have an app called "Android Pulse" on your phone. Most of us have way too many apps on our phones, and it's easy to forget that we downloaded some of them—especially when we install them once and never use them again. But I'd wager that not only do you have no recollection of downloading Android Pulse, but you have no idea what Android Pulse…

A mysterious app just appeared on millions of Android phones, and it’s actually there to help

Android Pulse, a background Google app already installed on over 10 million phones, just appeared in Play Store updates.

Google has sneaked a mysterious new app onto your Android phone — and now we think we know what it does

Android Pulse has appeared on the Google Play StoreIt's available as an update for some users, showing that it's already on their phonesThe description suggests this runs in the background to check for misbehaving appsAndroid Pulse is an app that you probably don’t know you have — but if you’ve got an Android phone then there’s a chance it’s already running in the background, and there’s an easy way to find out.As spotted by 9to5Google, just suc…

Android Pulse app may already be on your phone, and now we know what it does

TL;DR Google’s Android Pulse app is starting to appear as an available update in the Play Store. The background service appears to detect unusual resource usage, such as apps suddenly consuming too much battery, memory, or processing power. Android Pulse isn’t new; builds date back to March, and the Play Store shows more than 10 million downloads. There are plenty of Google apps you probably use every day, but Android Pulse is definitely not on…