Government’s entity list ban against Huawei has largely prevented US companies from working with them. Despite legal wrangling and trade negotiations between the two countries the ban is still in place, and in the case of Google, it means that while there are still updates and services available on older devices, any new Huawei phones don’t have access to its services.
According to Google, there’s still plenty of confusion around what’s going on and exactly which products are subject to the Google services ban.
We have continued to receive a number of questions about new Huawei devices (e.g., new models launching now, or earlier models launched after May 16, 2019 but now becoming available in new regions of the world) and whether Google’s apps and services can be used on these devices. We wanted to provide clear guidance to those asking these important questions.
Android & Play legal director Tristan Ostrowski also laid out the company’s opposition to people sideloading its apps. According to him it’s because Google can’t certify new Huawei phones, due to the ban, and cited the risk of compromised security either in the devices or via an app that has been tampered with. While Huawei had hinted at replacing Android with its own OS, it’s continuing to use Android, and replaced Google services with those of other companies like TomTom, for maps and navigation.
Google is trying to avoid the politics side of this, while also sternly dissuading people from going the backdoor route to maintain access to the company’s popular services.
