Huawei and Google services - what is the situation?

To understand the international situation that has affected the Chinese company, we need to go back in time a bit. Specifically, until June 2019, when the President of the United States, Donald Trump, forbade American companies to cooperate with Huawei. The reasons for such a decision are divided into those official and those that no one talks about loudly. Officially - Huawei is accused of spying and for the safety of American citizens cannot provide its services in the US. Unofficially, however, it is said that Huawei was simply unlucky and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The point is that the company has become a hostage in the trade war between the US and China. This is confirmed by the fact that for some time there was talk of removing the regulation from the manufacturer, if only the Chinese government made concessions on its part.

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Theoretically - in the first days after the ban was introduced, there was a method of uploading Google services to Android devices from Huawei. The company itself, although of course did not recommend such actions, winked at users, ensuring that they would not violate the terms of the warranty contract. Unfortunately, Google was forced to patch this workaround, and there is currently no way for Google programs to run on affected devices.

If we want to distinguish whether the phone we are dealing with has or does not have Google services, it is worth checking when it was launched on the market. If it took place before June 2019, there is a good chance that it is devoid of GMS. "There's a good chance" as Huawei has found one workaround that allows it to keep releasing phones with Google services. This is about situations where one of the older models is "refreshed". This was the case with the P30 Pro New Edition, which differed from the original ... in the color version of the housing.

Not everyone is equal against Huawei

The cooperation of American companies with a Chinese company, despite the fact that it is officially banned, is still going on to some extent. Huawei, although badly beaten, is still a very powerful player and the largest phone manufacturer in the international arena. No wonder that American companies are looking for exceptions, holes in restrictions or simply administrative favor to maintain this cooperation, or - to start it at all. This is the case, e.g. with Qualcomem, who, having learned about the problems with creating the right number of Kirin processors, wanted to obtain permission to offer Huawei their Snapdragons. The hole in the regulations was also used by Google, which provided updates for existing devices through it. Unfortunately for both companies (and customers), the license that allowed them to do this has now expired.

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This means that people who bought devices with GMS (before the ban) will not be able to receive even updates to their applications, or - patches for the Android system. Therefore, there is a risk that this will make the phones unusable, because unupdated applications may simply refuse to work after some time, or the scope of their capabilities will be severely limited. Users who have bought one of the brand's "refreshed" models, such as the new P30 Pro, may suffer from this. Such models have Google services, but as a result of the license expiration, there is a chance that users will not be able to enjoy them for long.

As Google itself admits - the effect of license expiration is that their cooperation with Huawei is currently in a gray, undefined legal area. This means that there is still a glimmer of hope for those who bought the brand's phones that the current situation will not turn to their disadvantage. Google does not want to comment further on the situation. Therefore, we will just have to wait for its development.

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Updated August 17, 2020

We have an official statement from Huawei Polska:

Huawei has access to system updates and security patches from Android through the Android Open Source Project. We will actively roll out new software updates, system patches and bug fixes while ensuring device compatibility and continuity. As of May 16, 2019, Huawei has been releasing security patches for more than 200 models. The frequency of patch releases is at the same level as the industry as a whole. The security update plan for Huawei models is available on the website: https://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/bulletin/ Users of older generation Huawei devices based on Google Mobile Services can continue to access the Google Play Store, from which they can download applications and updates. The operation of GMS-based applications also remains unchanged.