Use our apps at your own risk

Huawei device owners who want to use Google services like the Play store and Gmail are basically out of luck.

The Android OS maker published a post in Google’s Android Help forum Friday titled “Answering your questions on Huawei devices and Google services,” as Gizmodo spotted. Apparently, Huawei users, or people thinking about getting Huawei phones, wanted to know whether they would be able to use Google services on new devices.

The answer was an unequivocal no, at least for new devices (and maybe, eventually, for older ones as well).

“Google is prohibited from working with Huawei on new device models or providing Google’s apps including Gmail, Maps, YouTube, the Play Store and others for preload or download on these devices,” the post reads.

While the international community is not in total agreement, the U.S. government considers Huawei a security threat. According to Chinese law, the government has a right to data sharing access and information from private Chinese companies, even non-state entities. The U.S. government has taken the position that this makes the use of telecoms technology from a Chinese company like Huawei too risky from a national security standpoint. So on May 16, 2019, it placed Huawei on its “entities list,” which prohibits U.S. interests from doing business with the company.

Those high level politics have implications for Android users. Google can provide services and work with Huawei on tech for devices that were released prior to May 16, 2019. But it won’t be giving Huawei devices access to the Google Play Store and Google apps to newer devices. It says any side door attempts to get Google apps on Huawei devices carry a “high risk”:

Sideloaded Google apps will not work reliably because we do not allow these services to run on uncertified devices where security may be compromised. Sideloading Google’s apps also carries a high risk of installing an app that has been altered or tampered with in ways that can compromise user security.  

In other words: use janky versions of Google apps at your own risk, people.

Google previously urged the Trump administration to allow it to continue working with Huawei devices, saying collaboration would ultimately make things more secure. They have apparently lost that battle.