The US-China trade war costs the Chinese telecom and tech giant Huawei a lot. The long-standing fuss between two countries resulted in Huawei's inability to release devices with Google Play services. This is such a major inconvenience considering that Google apps and services are crucial parts of the entire Android experience.
However, Huawei is not discouraged and has so far shown no signs of easily giving up. Aside from working on its own operating system, Huawei is reportedly developing Google apps alternatives. The Chinese telecom and tech giant has invested more than $1 billion in its Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) developer program.
The news is courtesy of Huawei India chief Charles Peng who recently spoke to Economic Times through a statement. The company says that it is working on alternatives for the majority of Google services. It includes payments, navigation, messaging, and gaming. Additionally, Huawei states that users would not be able to tell the difference between Google and Huawei apps, says the report.
"We have our own HMS and are trying to build a mobile ecosystem. We are focusing on how to work with developers to offer a good customer experience. It is a challenge that we are trying to address."
While Huawei has the capability to develop these alternative apps and services, wccftech reports that it could be an uphill task persuading users to drop Google services. Developing apps is not as much as an issue as incentivizing users to make a switch, the report adds. But, it is still interesting to see what the Chinese telecom and tech giant has in store for the consumers.
The main issue would be in terms of services like the Google Play Store and YouTube. Huawei has its App Gallery as an alternative; however, it does not include a range of essentials like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. Also, there is the issue of 'trust' on the apps and services developed by the Chinese company.
It is worth noting that over the years, Huawei has earned an unpopular reputation, which could be a factor for some users to trust the company with their personal data. Contrasting regular apps, Google Play Services entail root-like permissions. In other words, you cannot just sideload it through third-party sources. It must be sideloaded onto the device similar to a custom ROM.
Also, Huawei restricts users from unlocking the bootloader of the device. As a result, it is impossible for users to install a custom recovery, which is crucial to the process of sideloading Google Apps, says wccftech.
