Google Warns Huawei Users Not to Sideload Its Apps

In an interesting twist in Huawei’s legal drama, Google this past week warned users not to sideload its app on their Huawei handsets.

“Due to [U.S.] government restrictions, Google’s apps and services are not available for preload or sideload on new Huawei devices,” a Google support document explains. “Because of the government restrictions … new Huawei device models made available to the public after May 16, 2019 … are considered ‘uncertified,’ and will not be able to utilize Google’s apps and services.”

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What Google is referring to here is its Google Play Protect program, which certifies Android devices using what Google calls “a rigorous security review and compatibility testing process … to ensure user data and app information are kept safe.” Google Play Protect-certified devices ship from the factory with protection that helps prevent them from compromised by hackers and malicious software.

Because Huawei’s most recent handsets and devices cannot be certified with Google Play Protect and cannot ship with popular Google apps like Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube, customers who purchase those devices have resorted to sideloading them manually. But this, Google says, is potentially dangerous.

“Sideloaded Google apps will not work reliably because we do not allow these services to run on uncertified devices where security may be compromised,” the support note continues. “Sideloading Google’s apps also carries a high risk of installing an app that has been altered or tampered with in ways that can compromise user security.”

Interestingly, the support document is credited to Google legal director Tristan Ostrowski. I have to assume that he doesn’t write a lot of support documents, and that the real point of attaching his name to it is to demonstrate to the U.S. government that it is following the letter of law with regards to Huawei’s placement on the so-called entity list. After all, only a tiny number of U.S. consumers purchase Huawei handsets, especially since the blacklisting.

That said, Huawei’s blacklisting also means that customers purchasing recent Huawei handsets outside the U.S. must also sideload Google apps. And there are plenty of those: At this point, Huawei sells more smartphones than any company in the world besides Samsung.

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Conversation 9 comments

  • Pbike908

    24 February, 2020 - 9:56 am

    <p>I would imagine everyone who buys a Huawei phone side loads. Why else would they buy one?</p>

    • spacein_vader

      Premium Member
      25 February, 2020 - 4:24 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#522760">In reply to Pbike908:</a></em></blockquote><p>Those who don't want to use Google services and could save the space by not having them installed and disabled?</p><p><br></p><p>The only thing that surprises me about this announcement is that Google didn't put up a step by step guide on how to do the thing they definitely don't want you to do.</p>

      • Paul Thurrott

        Premium Member
        25 February, 2020 - 7:15 am

        They assume people can Google it. 🙂

  • karlinhigh

    Premium Member
    24 February, 2020 - 9:57 am

    <p>I wonder if Google says the same thing about side-loading for Amazon Kindle Fire tablets, as in the recent Thurrott Now entry. (Which article and method I've used with success in the past.)</p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      24 February, 2020 - 11:20 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#522763">In reply to karlinhigh:</a></em></blockquote><p>I would imagine they would. Unless Google has a download for this stuff somewhere you are trusting a third party not to modify the code you are side loading.</p>

  • lvthunder

    Premium Member
    24 February, 2020 - 11:19 am

    <p>What kind of protection does Google Play Protect-certified devices come with from the factory?</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      25 February, 2020 - 12:36 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#522791">In reply to lvthunder:</a></em></blockquote><p>Not a lot, considering the cases of pre-installed malware over the last couple of years…</p>

  • kjb434

    Premium Member
    24 February, 2020 - 10:11 pm

    <p>To those capable of side loading and the community at XDA Developers, this is silly.</p><p><br></p><p>Unlock, root, replace the OS on these phones and you have clean device. You can falsify the device ID also.</p><p><br></p><p>This is just as Paul says, a document written by a lawyer to CYA Google. Google knows that there will be people that side load and customize devices.</p>

  • youwerewarned

    25 February, 2020 - 12:28 am

    <p>This on the heels of yet another round of Play Store bogus app culling. One would expect the purity tests would happen prepublication, no? That said, Huawei and most all similar electronics from China can't be trusted any more than the US equipment that gets a customized burn-in at Ft Meade prior to overseas delivery. EVERYONE is weaponizing consumer devices and our continued overreliance on Chinese devices is at this point absurd. Make the stuff here and quit the bitching about "no jobs".</p>

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