In the Android Help Community, Google now officially warns against the sideloading of Google services, the Play Store and the well-known Google apps on newer Huawei phones, which are no longer certified by Google due to the US sanctions. Apart from the Mate 30 Pro, this should affect some planned innovations from Honor and Huawei in the next few days and weeks, for which you should be aware that Google is probably not an option.
Google is apparently bombarded by users of newer Huawei mobile phones with questions about the subsequent installation of the missing Google services and Google apps such as the Play Store and has now given extensive information on this topic in the Android Help Community. Brief history: New Huawei phones that have been new on the market since May 16, 2019, with the exception of modified variants of earlier models, such as the Honor 9X, which was launched in autumn 2019, are no longer allowed due to the US sanctions against Huawei Google certified and recorded with Google Mobile Services, Play Store and the well-known Google Apps.
Previously certified Huawei phones, such as the popular P30 smartphone family, will continue to receive updates due to the multiple-extended exemption, all actually new smartphones from Huawei and Honor, such as the Mate 30 Pro or the global Honor 9X expected in Europe next week Pro and Honor V30 aka Honor View 30 smartphones as well as the Huawei P40 series expected at the end of March are delivered without any proprietary Google technology and, apart from a Huawei-modified open-source Android with EMUI surface, are a more or less full replacement Huawei’s own Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) and the Play Store alternative App Gallery.
In the new help entry mentioned, Google now warns explicitly against using Google Services (GMS), the Play Store and Google apps such as YouTube, Maps or Google Pay via dark channels and installing them yourself (through so-called sideloading). Google cites two reasons for this: On the one hand, there is no guarantee that the installation files that are obtained from anywhere on the Internet have not been modified and possibly “enriched” with malware, which could dramatically endanger the security and privacy of the user, one thinks only the topic of mobile banking. On the other hand, the lack of Google Play Protect certification will in many cases lead to problems when using the subsequently installed Google apps.
At least the latter can theoretically be avoided by subsequently registering their mobile phone with Google – which was originally only intended for users of alternative Roms such as LineageOS – but whether this will work in any case is not certain and could be blocked in the future. Ultimately, every buyer of a new Huawei and Honor smartphone needs to be aware that they have to do without Google services outside the respective web version and look for alternatives. Huawei should make this easier in the long term through intensive support from developers and rapid further development of the HMS, but you should be aware that a subsequent installation of the Googe infrastructure on a Huawei phone is actually an unsafe and not recommended hack.
