Google's warning on sideloading Google apps on new Huawei devices.

Photo by Mark Chan on Unsplash

It is known that the US government has put some limitations to Huawei in the US by banning US companies from working with Huawei, which led to Google withdrawing their apps and PlayStore from new Huawei devices which were released after May 26, 2019, the date that the ban was gone into effect.

Huawei quickly turned to alternatives and made their own app store and alternatives to Google's main apps like  G-mail, Drive, Maps, etc. but not all users may be found of these alternatives especially the users out of China who were used to the Google services, although Google apps cannot be installed directly from Huawei's new apps store.

Because Google didn't license them to the new Huawei phones, users can still download them from the third-party websites, However, Google warns the Huawei users to stop downloading Google apps from outside the PlayStore because they may pose a security threat to the device and to the user's privacy.

Google wrote on their Android Help community page addressing the questions about Huawei devices and Google services, Google says in the community post that "On May 16, 2019, the US government placed Huawei on its Entity List. This government action prohibits all US companies, including Google, from collaborating with Huawei."

Google says that they're working with Huawei in compliance with the new restrictions to protect the security of the Google users on the millions of existing Huawei devices, Google still provides support and updates to older Huawei phones, they are only banned from providing support to newly arrived Huawei devices.

Google says that they're receiving questions regarding using Google services in new Huawei devices,

"Due to government restrictions, Google’s apps and services are not available for preload or sideload on new Huawei devices."

Google only makes its apps available on Play Protect certified devices, a smartphone can be certified by Play Protect by going through a rigorous security review and compatibility testing process by Google, certified devices also come with Google Play Protect software that ensures protection to the device against being compromised.

New Huawei devices released after May 16,2019 are not certified, so Google apps won't work as intended in these devices, so sideloading Google apps will not work properly because Google won't allow their services to run on uncertified devices, additionally, Google warns that sideloaded apps can be altered or tampered with in ways that can compromise user security.

If you're using a new Huawei device it is better to use the existing alternative apps that are offered by Huawei, instead of using the Google apps that may work as intended.