USA vs. China Phone Wars Round 14

Just when we thought the phone war was over, Huawei is losing illegal access to Google Apps. This means that Huawei Mate 30 Smartphone smartphones no longer allow manual installation of Android applications. This bootleg access was somewhat of an official workaround, or sort of public secret, to how Google's services were still available to owners of Huawei smartphones. However, the last hope of finding a diplomatic solution is now over.

The mentioned workaround was published by Mr. John Wu, a well-known researcher and leading figure in the events related to what we called the phone war. It published a pretty enlightening method of manually downloading and installing desired Google apps on Huawei Mate 30 Pro, even with the US blacklist or "trump ban" still in effect. As many know, this prevents the Chinese manufacturer from using US components and software, including Google apps. Fortunately, Mr. Wu found a way to make it work and shared it with the world last week.

However, 48 hours after the post was published, the Mate 30's mobile devices lost all access to Android apps. A number of smartphone technology experts confirm that only Google is able to make this type of ban, through their SafetyNet anti-abuse control. Mr. Wu's post was as follows:

“Although this 'backdoor' requires user interaction, the installer application, which is signed with a special certificate from Huawei, has no privileges on standard Android systems” - John Wu

After Mr. Wu's post, Google appears to have plunged into a vacuum and carried out a thorough security check. There is an app called LZPlay which also allowed the installation of Google apps on Mate 30 Pro and appeared with the device. Now he's also gone after the post. Wu said it was obvious Huawei intentionally allowed the app to exist, but the manufacturer denied the claims in a statement.

Anyway, the ban is now absolute. The United States and China have officially and completely separated and the conflict seems to be over, but without a truce or favorable terms for Huawei users. However, naturally, the company already has contingency plans and several other big names have stepped in to help stop the disaster.

Do you want to know how it happened? Discover the whole Phone War series!