In light of the recent Trump-mandated trade ban that saw the blacklisting of Huawei, the US Government has apparently granted the Chinese company a temporary license to continue providing Android updates through to August.
As per the ban, Google reportedly had to stop granting several Android-related services to Huawei and its devices – this meant that Google Play Services along with Maps and Gmail, among many more features, were halted from being updated on upcoming Huawei phones.
Many users voiced their concerns over whether their devices would still continue to receive security and general updates; and this move by the government means that they will, at least until August. If anything, this is a sign of a half-baked trade sanction that was imposed in a hurry for whatever reason on the Trump administration’s part; and now the rest of the industry are left to tie up loose ends left by the new law.
As for the Chinese manufacturer, they have since released a statement regarding the situation, promising to continue offering updates and services to existing Huawei and Honor products — whether it is already in consumers’ hands or in stock. “Huawei has made substantial contributions to the development and growth of Android around the world. As one of Android’s key global partners, we have worked closely with their open-source platform to develop an ecosystem that has benefitted both users and the industry.”
We here are hoping this won’t be a long-term fracas and that both parties would play nice for the sake of users.