US-Google has warned people not to circumvent the ban on Google apps that affects newer Huawei phones.
Recent Huawei devices cannot download the Google Play app store or hugely popular apps such as Gmail, YouTube, or Google Maps.
Android phones allow users to install apps from unverified sources, however.
But now, Google has warned this “sideloading” - manually installing app files found online - is “high risk”, as the files may have been tampered with.
CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood said Google was right to warn people the practice was “risky”.
“Unless you are 100% certain about the integrity of the app, it is not a risk worth taking,” he said.
What did Google say about it apps?
The restrictions on Google apps date back to May 2019, when the US government placed Huawei on a trading restrictions database called the “entity list”.
That restricts what kind of deals US businesses - such as Google - can do with the company.
And because Google owns the Android phone operating system, that decision has affected Huawei’s Android phones.
Huawei says call intercept claims are ‘nonsense’ Google said it was now releasing official advice because “we have continued to receive a number of questions about new Huawei devices”.
But the situation remained that “ Google’s apps and services are not available for preload or sideload” on those phones.
Google has not involved itself in the row between US officials and the Chinese-owned Huawei and still provides security and other updates to older phones, which it is legally allowed to do.
Only Android devices certified under Google’s “Play Protect certified” programme are allowed to have the Play store and other core Google apps.
The company says the programme is “a rigorous security review and compatibility testing process”.
And every Android manufacturer using Google’s services must go through this process.
But the US trading restrictions mean Huawei cannot do so.
“There will be many scammers who will see Huawei’s difficulties as an opportunity to get malicious code on to people’s smartphones,” Mr Wood said.
“It’s a huge risk for a consumer to scour the web in search of APKs [Android files] that purport to offer Google’s missing services.”
Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG) is one of Huawei's three business groups, providing a range of products including mobile phones, wearables, tablets and laptops. Huawei’s products and services are available in more than 170 countries, and are used by a third of the world’s population, ranking second in the world in mobile phone shipments at the end of March 2019.
Year-on-year growth was reflected in Huawei’s rise as a globally recognized premium brand. In 2019, Huawei has been ranked 47th on BrandZ’s Most Valuable Global Brands list, 79th on Forbes World’s Most Valuable Brands list and 10th on the Brand Finance Global 500 Most Valuable Brands list in 2020. Among the Fortune 500, Huawei climbed up the list to the 72nd place in 2018, up 11 places from the previous year.
As a leading technology company, Huawei invests a significant amount of its annual sales revenue to research and development efforts, and has established 15 research centers around the world. Among these facilities is the Huawei Aesthetics Research Center in Paris. Huawei’s newest R&D center is the Max BerekInnovation Lab in Wetzler, Germany, where Huawei and Leica are jointly researching technologies to improve mobile device camera and image quality.
For more information, visit Huawei Consumer Business Group online: https://www.huawei.com/pk
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