In response to US President Donald Trump’s recent executive order enabling the US government to ban the use of Huawei telecommunications equipment by US firms, Google has made certain updates for its Android operating system unavailable to the Chinese tech giant, which is the world’s second largest producer of smartphones.
Google stated that it is “complying with the order and reviewing the implications”. While current users of Huawei smartphones will still receive security updates and have the ability to update applications through Google Play, Huawei devices may be excluded from the new Android version set to be released by Google later this year. Furthermore, popular apps owned by Google, such as YouTube and Google Maps, may not be available to future Huawei devices. Analysts consider this move to be a significant blow to Huawei in the consumer market.
The US government has boycotted Huawei over security concerns and has been pushing its allies to do the same in order to prevent Huawei from providing the Chinese government with access to the data and systems of foreign governments. Both Huawei and the Chinese government have consistently denied these allegations.
Read more: Huawei’s use of Android restricted by Google
