AfterDawn: News

Google blocked: Huawei phones wont be able to access Gmail, Play Store, new Android versions and more

United States has waged a war against Chinese telecom giant Huawei for some time now. But now the big guys are joining the fight. According to reports, Google will stop all collaboration with Huawei.

Decision means that Huawei phones wont get any new Android updates, ever. It also means that all future Huawei phones will be blocked from accessing Google services. No access to Gmail, no access to Google Play store, etc.



Huawei will still have an access to open sourced versions of Android, but without the access to Google's proprietary services and APIs. Google will also cease all collaboration and support for Huawei that involves Android development and testing, Reuters' sources say.

Google's decision comes shortly after United States officially added Huawei to the U.S. trade blacklist.

Huawei also owns popular sister phone brand, Honor, and the decision applies to that brand, too.

EDIT 20/05/2019: Google has clarified what the decision means to existing Huawei users.

EDIT 2: Now, also Intel and Qualcomm have ceased business with Huawei, which will effectively kill off its PC and laptop business - and make building certain phones much harder, too.

Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 19 May 2019 15:12

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• 12 comments

• davolente

  Oh, great. Thank you very much (NOT) Trumpy baby. I have a Huawei phone. This is all down to one man's crackpot obsession and paranoia. Does he not realise the disruption he is causing? The sooner he goes, the better - one way or the other, if you get my drift.

  19.5.2019 16:52 #1

• rafa374

  Yeah when you look at the figs, the main trade imbalance is in Computers & Electrical Equipment where China is absolutely beating hell out of the US. Trump & Google seem to be engaging in grotesquely unfair protectionism. I'd back China to win this war in the end. The US beat Japan fairly, I believe, in the 1990's. Now it's signalling its inferiority & incapacity to compete.

  19.5.2019 17:06 #2

• RustyWils

  davolente, the way I read the report is that Google will block all access for future Huawei phones, not existing ones.
  

  19.5.2019 21:04 #3

• ChikaraNZ

  https://www.wired.com/story/huawei-thre...doors-its-bugs/
  
  Huawei has other big problems too.
  I think some of the concern is political but there are definitely some genuine concerns with Huawei's security too.
  And don't forgot, no matter what Huawei or any other Chinese company say about privacy - by law they have to comply with any Chinese government requests to access any of their data or business. Cut out all the other stuff, and thet's reason alone right there why I would never ever buy a Huawei phone. Who knows what data from our phones might accidentally or deliberately pass through a server in China and then be accessible to the Chinese government.
  

  19.5.2019 21:26 #4

• pmshah

  Originally posted by ChikaraNZ: https://www.wired.com/story/huawei-threat-isnt-backdoors-its-bugs/
  
  Huawei has other big problems too.
  I think some of the concern is political but there are definitely some genuine concerns with Huawei's security too.
  And don't forgot, no matter what Huawei or any other Chinese company say about privacy - by law they have to comply with any Chinese government requests to access any of their data or business. Cut out all the other stuff, and thet's reason alone right there why I would never ever buy a Huawei phone. Who knows what data from our phones might accidentally or deliberately pass through a server in China and then be accessible to the Chinese government. And what privacy are we talking about here ? Google is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, privacy invader. Do you suppose this collection of data is safe from the hands of CIA, FBI or DHS or what ever the other effing agency you can think about !!

  19.5.2019 22:06 #5

• pmshah

  Originally posted by rafa374: Yeah when you look at the figs, the main trade imbalance is in Computers & Electrical Equipment where China is absolutely beating hell out of the US. Trump & Google seem to be engaging in grotesquely unfair protectionism. I'd back China to win this war in the end. The US beat Japan fairly, I believe, in the 1990's. Now it's signalling its inferiority & incapacity to compete. You are sadly mistaken. Look at any of your appliances for country of origin. Walk int Crate and Barrel pick up[ any item. Walk into ANY clothing store and check.
  
  In 2000 practically everything had "Made in USA" label on it. Today you will be hard pressed to find ANYTHING that is not made in China.

  19.5.2019 22:10 #6

• demid

  Yeah, that's why Google has dropped its 'don't be evil' motto. This shows that it has really gone to the Dark Side.
  

  Demid

  20.5.2019 03:13 #7

• dRD

  Update:
  
  Google has clarified what this means to existing Huawei / Honor users:
  
  https://www.afterdawn.com/news/article....or-honor-phones
  

  Petteri Pyyny (pyyny@twitter)
  Webmaster
  http://AfterDawn.com/

  20.5.2019 03:58 #8

• ChikaraNZ

  Originally posted by pmshah: Originally posted by ChikaraNZ: https://www.wired.com/story/huawei-threat-isnt-backdoors-its-bugs/
  
  Huawei has other big problems too.
  I think some of the concern is political but there are definitely some genuine concerns with Huawei's security too.
  And don't forgot, no matter what Huawei or any other Chinese company say about privacy - by law they have to comply with any Chinese government requests to access any of their data or business. Cut out all the other stuff, and thet's reason alone right there why I would never ever buy a Huawei phone. Who knows what data from our phones might accidentally or deliberately pass through a server in China and then be accessible to the Chinese government. And what privacy are we talking about here ? Google is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, privacy invader. Do you suppose this collection of data is safe from the hands of CIA, FBI or DHS or what ever the other effing agency you can think about !! Not saying it is safe there either, but I would trust it more in the hands of the US government or Google, than I would in the hands of the Chinese government. Of course in the hands of neither is better, but you know...
  

  20.5.2019 05:02 #9

• rafa374

  Huh? Your comments AGREE with me. China is beating hell out of US in key areas. The differences - well over $100bn in computers - can't be down to intellectual theft & restrictive practices alone - but to US/Trump being really bad loser.
  --- Originally posted by pmshah: Originally posted by rafa374: Yeah when you look at the figs, the main trade imbalance is in Computers & Electrical Equipment where China is absolutely beating hell out of the US. Trump & Google seem to be engaging in grotesquely unfair protectionism. I'd back China to win this war in the end. The US beat Japan fairly, I believe, in the 1990's. Now it's signalling its inferiority & incapacity to compete. You are sadly mistaken. Look at any of your appliances for country of origin. Walk int Crate and Barrel pick up[ any item. Walk into ANY clothing store and check.
  
  In 2000 practically everything had "Made in USA" label on it. Today you will be hard pressed to find ANYTHING that is not made in China.

  20.5.2019 06:16 #10

• demid

  Come to think of it, this may well turn out to be a blessing in disguise if Huawei halves its prices in response. I'll then be the first to buy their phone because I can easily live without Gmail and all the apps I need are available as .apk file.
  

  Demid

  20.5.2019 07:23 #11

• rich5544

  I don't believe buying a Huawei phone was or is the brightest thing to do. They were caught using the phones to spy on whoever was using them. Don't you realize the Chinese steal government and corporate secrets thru the use of their phones. How do you think they have advanced so rapidly.

  20.5.2019 11:26 #12