Huawei & Google – advice for customers

What's happened exactly?

Following the US Government’s decision in May 2019 to add Huawei, including their sub-brand Honor to the list of companies that American firms cannot trade with, the temporary licence with Google, and its Android operating system, has now ended. This means some changes moving forwards on both new and existing devices.

Please read below for an update on what this means for you, whether you currently own a Huawei or Honor smartphone or are thinking of buying one in the future.

We will continue to monitor the news and update as soon as we can if anything changes.

I already own a Huawei or Honor phone, what does this mean for me?

Huawei and Google have confirmed that, at the moment, if you already have a Huawei or Honor handset, it will continue to be supported and can update their devices as normal:

• Huawei has confirmed that all existing Huawei or Honor phones will continue to be supported as normal.
• Google has confirmed that Google Play and Google Play Protect will also continue to work.
• Huawei have said they will support security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and table products.

I'm planning to buy a new Huawei or Honor phone, what does this mean for me?

Huawei has confirmed that all Huawei and Honor phones will continue to be supported as normal.

• Google has confirmed that current models with Google Play and Google Play Protect will also continue to work.
• For new models without Google Play Store, Huawei has developed its very own Huawei AppGallery, as an alternative to Google Play Store, this provides alternatives to Google Authorised Apps. The Huawei AppGallery currently runs on the Android operating system and gives users access to a range of apps and services developed by Huawei - as well as those readily available on the Android operating system.
• These devices will not have access to Google authorised apps applications, such as the Google Play Store, Google Maps or Chrome.

For detailed information on software and security updates, please visit https://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/bulletin/

Huawei FAQs

Huawei have shared their answers to frequently asked questions here

*Huawei P40 Series will come pre-installed with the Huawei AppGallery, which is the Huawei alternative to the Google Play Store, that will not be available on these devices.

The AppGallery will provide users with alternatives to Google authorised apps. Find out more information about the Huawei AppGallery here.

Find out more about Huawei Mobile Services here https://www.idmobile.co.uk/huawei-mobile-services