For international Huawei fans, Android has lost itself in the absence of Google

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 a lot of improvements in both design and technology (you can refer to this article. ). However, what many international users are most concerned about is that Google's applications continue to be absent.

After nearly a year, Huawei users in China have somewhat adapted to life without Google, because they have a lot of domestic products that are not inferior. However, for international users, the story is not so simple: 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 importance of the tech giant. For international users, Google's service system has become so popular, so familiar and an integral part of their daily work. The absence of Google makes Huawei's smartphones so expensive that they don't really meet even the most basic needs of users.

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 important role in all Android devices outside China. Without GMS, Huawei users will not be able to access Gmail, Chrome, Play Store. But worse still is 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). In addition, GMS and Google Play also play an important role in protecting user devices from malware. Even applications that you install from outside, not through Google Play, are thoroughly scanned.

For ordinary users, with developers, GMS and Google Play also provide a lot of 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 own application ecosystem to cope with life without Google, they still have many shortcomings and problems to be solved. The simplest example Sam has given is 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 own operating system. But Android phones without Google, especially for users outside China, are really no longer Android phones.

As Sam has asserted, this problem is actually 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 is not allowed to access the application system of the parent company, then suddenly 'lose 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 that users have been used to for years.

According to TheVerge