Owners of Huawei devices who want to use Google services such as the Play store and Gmail are basically out of luck.

As Gizmodo spotted, the Android OS maker published a post in Google's Android Help Forum Friday, entitled "Answering your questions about Huawei devices and Google services." Huawei users, or people who are talking of having Huawei phones, evidently wanted to ask whether they would be able to use Google apps on new devices.

The answer was an unambiguous no, at least to new devices (and perhaps, eventually, to older ones too).

"It is prohibited for Google to collaborate with Huawei on new device models or to provide Google apps like Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Play Store and others for pre-loading or downloading on those devices," the post reads.

While the international community is not entirely in agreement, the U.S. government regards Huawei as a threat to security. Under Chinese law, the government has the right to access and information from private Chinese companies, including non-state organizations, for data sharing. The US government has taken the position that the use of telecommunications technology from a Chinese company such as Huawei is too risky from a national security standpoint. So on May 16, 2019, it placed Huawei on its "entities list," which prohibits U.S. interests from doing business with the company.

Such politics at the high level have consequences for Android users. For devices released prior to May 16, 2019, Google can provide services and collaborate with Huawei on Tech. But it will not allow Huawei devices access to newer devices in the Google Play Store and Google Apps. It says any side door attempts on Huawei devices to get Google apps bear a "high risk".

In other words: At your own risk, people, use janky versions of Google apps.

Google previously urged the Trump administration to allow it to continue working with Huawei devices, saying that ultimately, collaboration would make things safer. They've seemingly lost that fight.

Image©: SCMP

Source: Mashable