Android is a Google product, but now it cannot access the parent company’s application system. Suddenly “losing yourself” is not difficult to understand.
In May 2019, Google announced its withdrawal of Huawei’s Android license and allowed only Chinese manufacturers to access the Android Open Source Project. This means that Huawei products and devices will no longer be able to use Google services and applications.
Recently, Huawei has officially launched its latest generation of flagships, including the P40, P40 Pro, and P40 Pro +, with many design and technology improvements. However, what many international users are most concerned about is that Google’s applications continue to be absent.
Google’s services continue to be absent from Huawei’s new generation of smartphones.
After nearly a year, Huawei users in China have somewhat adapted to life without Google because they have many domestic products that are not inferior. However, the story is not so simple for international users: Android was no longer the Android they knew when Google was no longer available.
Recently, Sam Byford, a writer for The Verge, conducted a test to see, when unable to access Google applications and services, what can the Huawei Mate 30 Pro smartphone do? Sam said we don’t need to be a hard-core Google or Android fan to realize the tech giant’s importance. For international users, Google’s service system has become so popular, familiar, and an integral part of their daily work. Google’s absence makes Huawei’s smartphones so expensive that they don’t meet even the most basic users’ needs.
The conclusion is that Sam came up with that Huawei fan life is not so bad without Google, but it is strange and somewhat wrong. Google’s mobile services (GMS) play an essential role in all Android devices outside China. Without GMS, Huawei users will not be able to access Gmail, Chrome, and Play Store but, worse still, that even other related applications, even those not manufactured by Google, cannot work.
GMS and Google Play services have gradually become an integral part of the way. Android smartphones work. They are the foundation for web engines to be easily upgraded, making the operating system automatically update security (via the Mainline project). Besides, GMS and Google Play also play an essential role in protecting user devices from malware. Even applications that you install from outside, not through Google Play, are thoroughly scanned.
Android phones will no longer be themselves without Google.
For ordinary users, with developers, GMS and Google Play also provide many useful services – an important role that we rarely pay attention to. Google services may provide push notifications, user location, advertising support, and more. Although Huawei has tried to build its application ecosystem to cope with life without Google, they still have many shortcomings and problems to be solved. Sam has given the most straightforward example that the Mate 30 Pro doesn’t even have an online mapping application.
Huawei can consider Android to be open source and freely exploit to build its operating system. But Android phones without Google, especially for users outside China, are no longer Android phones.
As Sam has asserted, this problem is not so terrible as we thought, it is just too strange, and users can not (or never can) adapt. Android is a Google product, but now it cannot access the parent company’s application system. Suddenly “losing yourself” is not difficult to understand.
Think about it, if iOS and Windows are in the same situation, not supported by Apple and Microsoft, they will be as strange as Huawei’s Android now. They will still work, even if they work well, but not in the same way users have been used to for years.
According to TheVerge
