Google has revoked Huawei’s Android license, restricting Huawei from some updates to Android. The company has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware and software products except those covered by open source licenses.
The Trump administration on Wednesday added Huawei to a trade blacklist, immediately enacting restrictions that will make it extremely difficult for the company to do business with U.S. counterparts.
“We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications,” said a Google spokesperson.
“For users of our services, Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices.”
The move could hobble Huawei’s smartphone business outside China as the tech giant will immediately lose access to updates to Google’s Android operating system.
Future versions of Huawei smartphones that run on Android will also lose access to popular services including the Google Play Store and Gmail and YouTube apps.
Huawei will no longer get Google’s security updates and technical support, and will be unable to from apply for evaluation of devices under the Compatibility Test Suite (CTS), which any OEM must pass to be able to use the Android branding on its devices and provide services like:
- Google Play Store
- Google Drive cloud storage
- Google Music and other media
- Google Photos
- Google Search
- Google Assistant
- Google Cast
- Chrome
- Google Duo video calls
- YouTube
Users will not be able to side-load apps for these services because Google prohibits CTS-unverified devices from running its apps. Besides Google apps, all the others that use Google’s APIs, to facilitate log-in, for instance, will also be blocked on smartphones by Huawei and sub-brand Honor.
Existing Huawei smartphone users will be able to update apps and push through security fixes, as well as update Google Play services. But when Google releases a new version of Android, Huawei won’t be able to offer the update on its phones.
However, security updates will still be affected. Currently, Google gives Android device-makers the code for its software updates about one month before it reveals details to the public about the vulnerabilities involved.
This gives manufacturers time to check the patches do not cause problems for their own proprietary software, and then to package up a customised version of the updates. That could result in a situation in which a serious flaw is revealed and Huawei’s devices remain exposed for several days or weeks.
Huawei will now only learn of the patches on the same day they are released to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), meaning there will be a lag before it can distribute them.
What’s worse is that Huawei will be prohibited from sending out new updates to their existing smartphones, and if it does, it will be forced to remove Google Play Services and Google apps from the existing devices as well.
Huawei can still use the version of the Android operating system available through an open source licence. This would allow the company to tinker with Android and use AOSP builds to continue providing EMUI updates.
However, in that situation, it will not be able to support Google Play Services and other Google apps. This will limit users to rely on Huawei’s AppGallery, which has a relatively smaller number of apps, even though that wouldn’t resolve the issue with Google apps.
Huawei has said it has spent the last few years preparing a contingency plan by developing its own technology in case it is blocked from using Android. Some of this technology is already being used in products sold in China, the company has said.
Huawei’s European business, its second-biggest market, could be hit as Huawei licenses these services from Google in Europe.
Basically, this executive order crushes Huawei and Honor’s presence, not just in the U.S., but basically every market where devices are shipped with Google services pre-installed.
