Update: Just today, the Department of Commerce in the U.S. has lifted Huawei’s ban temporarily. They gave Huawei a chance for a temporary license to be able to maintain its current products.
The license is only in effect through August 19, 2019 or a total of ninety (90) days. This permit allows the company to still work with U.S. corporations temporarily and support its current customers. With these, Huawei can still push through updates till August 2019 meaning that its customer might still get Android Q within the next 3 months. Aside from Google, they can also maintain business with Intel, Qualcomm and others for the rest of the time the license is active.
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The only thing that this license wouldn’t be able to do is allow the company to release new devices. They are still banned in doing this.
After 3 months, if the blacklist wouldn’t change, Huawei might need to allocate that time in building its custom operating system and push new firmware to its devices. But we hope this wouldn’t happen and we hope that the U.S. would just remove the blacklist on the manufacturer.
Huawei is one of the most known brand in the smartphone industry following Samsung and Apple’s lead. Just recently, there was a controversy in the U.S. where there were talks that Huawei is implementing software unto their phones which collects and sends data of the users back to Huawei without any consent from those who buy their phones.
With this controversy, and the announcement of the U.S. Commerce Department on putting a trade blacklist on Huawei and 68 others, lit fire to Google’s action in cutting off Huawei’s access to Android. We know what you are thinking, how about those who already have a Huawei phone? Would they still be able to use their phones because of the immediate ban? Don’t worry, we would be tackling what would happen to current Huawei phones.
First and foremost, Google has released a statement via Android’s Twitter account clearing what would happen to current Huawei phones.
For Huawei users’ questions regarding our steps to comply w/ the recent US government actions: We assure you while we are complying with all US gov’t requirements, services like Google Play & security from Google Play Protect will keep functioning on your existing Huawei device.”
For Huawei users' questions regarding our steps to comply w/ the recent US government actions: We assure you while we are complying with all US gov't requirements, services like Google Play & security from Google Play Protect will keep functioning on your existing Huawei device.
— Android (@Android) May 20, 2019
So for existing Huawei users, you don’t need to worry, your phone would still be functional and would still have access to core applications like Google Play, Gmail, Youtube and many more. Your phone is already licensed to have these features so they won’t be able to remove those from your phones.
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However for technical support, Google won’t be able to help users with Huawei Devices and they won’t be able to license Huawei phones that will be released in the future.
Now if we were to talk about Operating System updates, this is most likely where users would be affected. With the said ban, Huawei would be stripped off the capability of getting exclusive partner updates from Google. Meaning for Huawei phones, they most likely wouldn’t get Android Q soon. Huawei needs to wait for Android Q to be listed under AOSP on Android Open Source Project to be able to push it through their phones which usually takes a long time.
On the other end, Huawei has responded to Google’s decision and has released a statement as well:
Huawei has made substantial contributions to the development and growth of Android around the world. As one of Android’s key global partners, we have worked closely with their open-source platform to develop an ecosystem that has benefitted both users and the industry.
In addition to that, Huwei made the announcement that they will still continue to provide updates and services to all of their existing Honor and Huawei smartphones and tablets.
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Huawei will continue to provide security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products, covering those that have been sold and that are still in stock globally. We will continue to build a safe and sustainable software ecosystem, in order to provide the best experience for all users globally.”
This means that even with the ban, Huawei would do their best to try and still push through security updates for existing Huawei devices although no guarantee is given.
At the same time, Intel, Qualcomm and other companies also chose to cut ties with Huawei. Some of Huawei’s phones use hardware from the said companies. So, with their decision, future updates would definitely be affected since core drivers needed for updates wouldn’t be given to Huawei by their partners.
