If you don’t already know, Google earlier today suspended all it’s business relations with Huawei to comply with the US Commerce Department’s decision to place Huawei on the ‘Entity List’ – a list containing countries US entities can not do business with – without explicit government approval.
Google has provided us with the following statement, confirming that existing devices already on Android, will continue to be able to access the Google Play Store and enjoy Google Play Protect without any restrictions.
“We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications. For users of our services, Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices.”
However, these devices will no longer be able to receive new Android upgrades, or security patches until they are made available on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). New devices being shipped for sales by Huawei will also be barred from using the Android OS.
While Huawei themselves have always been anticipating US sanctions on their hardware, the ban from Google and the popular Android operating system might have caught them off guard. Huawei, we know have been working on their own mobile operating system for sometime now, and its already being tested in parts of China – but it is still very far from being an accepted OS outside of their home turf.
Huawei’s sub-brand Honor is set to launch their Honor 20 series in London on the 21st of May, so it will be interesting to see their response to this latest breaking development in a few days time.
