The recent ban put by Google on Huawei smartphones will be a major hindrance factor for the company’s Honor 20 series upcoming launch on Tuesday in London. .
The company has invited major press from across the globe to its launch event in London. All eyes will be on Huawei and how the company proceeds in the post-Android era. As per the latest news, the current Huawei devices will offer full Android experience including Google’s app store. However, future Huawei smartphones have an uncertain future and with the absence of the most famous mobile OS on their smartphones, things will surely get tough for the Chinese smartphone manufacturer.
Although, Android is an open source project and any company from around the world can use it to its own benefit, there are certain apps however which are the crux of the Android OS namely being Gmail and Play Store. The banning of these services means Huawei has been pushed out of the Android ecosystem. Here is the list of Google apps which will now not be available on Huawei devices:
- the Play app store
- its own apps
- the Google Assistant virtual helper
- the Gmail email service
- tools that allow third-party services access to certain functions
Current Huawei users will not suddenly be locked out of the Google ecosystem as their current devices have already been certified under processes known as the Compatibility Test Suite (CTS) and the Vendor Test Suite (VTS). Unfortunately, matters become much complicated when it comes to security updates.
New Huawei handsets
As mentioned above new Huawei phones will not be certified and as a result, will not have Google Mobile services pre-installed. This includes Google’s most famous apps:
- the Play stores for apps, music, and other media
- Google Photos
- YouTube
- Google Maps
- Google Drive cloud storage
- Google Duo video calls
While some of these devices will be accessible via web, however, there will be much lag, hindrance and the absence of a seamless system. As far as the Android versions are concerned, Google has already shared a major chunk of Android Q’s code with Huawei so chances are that some of the Huawei devices will have Android Q or will be updated to it. As Mr. Rehman BBC’s correspondent explains:
“What happens is that Google’s top partners – which includes companies like Huawei and Samsung – get early access to the preview code many months before the public beta release. That gives them a big head-start on adapting their own software releases. The impact on Huawei would be that it would lose several months of development time.” he explained.
It seems the template is pretty much set for Huawei to introduce its own mobile OS as it is the only viable option left for the Chinese tech-giant. Whether it will be successful or not is a different story, for now, it seems the company has been severely crippled in the light of US-China trade war.
US lifts ban on Huawei, offering temporary relief