According to a report by the news agency Reuters, Google has significantly restricted its cooperation with the Chinese Huawei group under pressure from the US government. Until further notice, the sale of hardware, software and other services is discontinued according to an informed source. This also means that Huawei smartphones will not receive Android updates until the dispute is resolved and will not be able to access the Play Store. Only open source software is exempt from the embargo. Google has confirmed the situation to The Verge.
So the public Android version can still be used by the Chinese. However, Huawei will only receive non-public security updates and advance versions of the mobile operating system once the source drop has occurred through Google. Only preliminary versions that can be obtained via the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) are also available to Huawei without restrictions.
A decree by US President Donald Trump forces US companies to apply for a license if they want to sell technology to Huawei. Analysts assume that this is a quasi-ban, as the required licenses will most likely not be granted.
So far, lawyers from Google and Huawei have been examining which specific services are affected. What is certain, however, is that Google apps such as Play Store, Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and Chrome will be affected and therefore may not be installed on new Huawei smartphones, as their use requires a commercial agreement between Google and the smartphone manufacturer, which requires the newly introduced license.
Old Devices Not Affected
Google has now given the all-clear for owners of Huawei smartphones via the Android Twitter account, who have feared that Google services will no longer work on their devices either.
There are therefore no changes for devices already sold for the time being. Only the update situation and the use of new Android main versions is still unclear.
In addition to Google, a number of US hardware manufacturers have also stopped supplying Huawei, as reported by Bloomberg with reference to in-house sources. In addition to chip giants Intel and Qualcomm, Broadcom and Xilinx are also affected. Huawei currently uses Qualcomm processors and modems in almost all smartphones. The Chinese company uses Intel processors mainly in servers and laptops. Xilinx and Broadcom supply components that are built into the controversial network equipment, which several U.S. agencies say has espionage capabilities.
