Google Yanks Huawei's Android License Leaving Future Updates, Play Store Access In Limbo

In effect, U.S. companies are now forbidden from working with Huawei over fears that it is in cahoots with the Chinese government to spy on U.S. interests and its allies (both in the consumer sector and in government operations). According to a Reuters report, Huawei will "immediately lose" access to Android operating system updates. Huawei will only have access to Android via publicly available open source licensing (similar to what Amazon does with its Android-based FireOS).

The report also says that the next round of Huawei smartphone -- which we assume to mean smartphones that would natively run the upcoming Android Q operating system -- will not have access to the Google Play Store or Google's homegrown apps. Losing access to the Google Play Store is bad enough, but being blocked from apps like Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps is an equally crippling blow.

We reported back in March that Huawei has been prepping for such actions taken by Google at the behest of the U.S. government. The company has a "Plan B" of sorts with homegrown operating systemsto replace both Microsoft Windows and Android on its PCs and smartphones respectively. Even though Huawei has actively developed this software if a "break in case of emergency" situation were to arise, the company reportedly doesn't want to have to resort to using them.

The Google ban might not have much of an effect on Huawei in its home market of China, as the smartphone company has a lot of momentum built-up and the Google Play Store is not much of a factor in the Chinese market. Rather, there are numerous third-party app store available where customers get their apps.

However, Huawei efforts to grow in markets like Europe and India -- where the Google Store is the primary avenue for customers to download apps -- will be seriously hampered by this latest move.