A mysterious new Android Pulse app has appeared on Android phones

There's a new Android Pulse app appearing on Android phones, but it's nothing to be alarmed about. The Android Pulse app is an app silently released by Google and downloaded to millions of Android phones -- though not quite available for all devices -- that's aimed at keeping your device running smoothly. 

According to the Play Store listing which went live over the weekend, Android Pulse is an app which "facilitates rule distribution for anomaly detection in critical system resource consumption by the Android operating system and installed applications."

In other words, what appears to be happening here is that the Pulse service checks that installed apps aren't hogging up system resources that they shouldn't. This could be RAM, battery, or even CPU resources. It keeps the finger on your Android's pulse, one could say.

Should you download Android Pulse?

Android Pulse is likely already installed on your phone if you can get it. If not, you can check the Play Store app updates section to see if you have an update waiting for you with the new Pulse app displayed. The Play Store listing for this app oddly showcases a blank screen, as do the app screenshots. It's a first party Google app and not a scam, despite appearances.

As it's a background service, once it appears, you can't uninstall it. If you'd like though you can disable it as you can with many built in Android apps, but there's no clear reason you would want to.