Huawei smartphones coming out in the next few months might not have Google services or even the Play Store pre-installed. Here’s why
Those who have been looking for information online over the past few months to figure out which smartphone to buy will most likely have heard that “on Huawei phones, there is no Google anymore.” Those who read the news of international politics, however, probably already know that this is only partially true and that it is due to the so-called “ban” of Donald Trump against Huawei and its subsidiary Honor.
However on this matter there is a lot of confusion, also because the trade block wanted by Trump does not concern only Google but all American technology companies. In fact, there are companies like Microsoft that through substantial lobbying actions at the White House (that Google, inexplicably, is not implementing) have managed to overcome the ban and are back to doing business with Huawei, so that Microsoft and Intel still provide software and hardware to the Chinese company. But how are things really? Why is there still no Google in Huawei smartphones today? And why, above all, is there still Android?
Huawei smartphones: Android yes, Google no
Although Huawei has already prepared its own new mobile operating system, called Harmony OS and currently left in the drawer, its smartphones continue to use Android. This is because Android is an open source and free operating system, initially developed by Android Inc (later bought by Google in 2005). What Huawei can’t use, therefore, is not Android but the “Google Mobile Services” (GMS), that is a series of pieces of software that connect each GMS-compatible app to the functionality of other apps (this time Google’s) such as YouTube, Maps, Gmail, Pay etc etc.
Through GMS, for example, a GPS tracking app can use Maps to record our routes and let us review them. Another app, on the other hand, can use Google Pay to allow users to make in-app purchases (such as games). These functions can be achieved even without GMS, by accessing the device’s hardware directly, but they have to be programmed from scratch and the user will not have a uniform and similar experience to what they will have with other apps instead.
Huawei: new smartphones don’t have GMS
So you can survive without GMS. On the other hand, many apps from developers who don’t want to share their data with Google don’t use GMS at all. For example those of Facebook, Netflix or Amazon. And, therefore, even the next Huawei smartphones could work just as well without Google’s services (unless the user installs GMS himself, but not via the Play Store).
Huawei without Google, how will it end?
On November 15, somewhat surprisingly, the Trump administration decided to renew the ban on Huawei for the second time, not removing it from the infamous “entity list” of companies considered dangerous to national security. Huawei, in the meantime, has put in place temporary and not final solutions. As mentioned, the Chinese giant already has an alternative operating system (but not an ecosystem of apps). Only time will tell if the ban will be lifted and everything can go back to the way it was before or if, on the contrary, Huawei will have to continue doing without Google and, in the long term, even without Android.