{"id":306944,"date":"2019-05-20T19:06:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T17:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=306944"},"modified":"2019-05-20T19:08:05","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T17:08:05","slug":"how-to-install-android-apps-if-your-smartphone-is-not-supported-by-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/software\/306944-how-to-install-android-apps-if-your-smartphone-is-not-supported-by-google.html","title":{"rendered":"How to install Android apps if your smartphone is not supported by Google"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following orders from the United States government in an attempt to curb technology trade with China, Google has revoked Huawei’s Android licence<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

This move could have serious implications for the manufacturer\u2019s smartphone business, as its upcoming handsets will not run licensed versions of Android.<\/p>\n

Google said that existing Huawei device owners will still be able to use Google Play and Google Play Protect – however, it is expected that handsets will not receive official Android platform updates in the future.<\/p>\n

Huawei smartphones released in the future may be forced to use the open-source Android licence or drop the OS altogether for their own proprietary software.<\/p>\n

While the inability to install Google apps such as Chrome, YouTube, and Gmail would be a major problem for many users, there are workarounds – depending on which solution is implemented by the companies.<\/p>\n

Android licensing explained<\/h3>\n

It may be odd to think that Huawei could continue to manufacture Android smartphones after losing their official Android licence, but the operating system’s code is actually open source.<\/p>\n

This means anybody can build it into a product and use it. Problems come in when dealing with the official Google licence that has been stripped from Huawei, though.<\/p>\n

Only the base Android operating system is open source and most Android devices ship with a substantial amount of Google-owned software.<\/p>\n

These include applications such as the Google Play Store, Google Search, YouTube, and Chrome, in addition to the all-important Google Play Services which provides APIs for integration with a host of Google-provided services.<\/p>\n

All of this is licensed from Google by manufacturers, and this means that Huawei will not have access to these applications when developing new Android devices.<\/p>\n

Potential workarounds for this lack of Google app integration may be open to the company, however.<\/p>\n

Potential workarounds<\/h3>\n

If Huawei were to develop a version of Android based on the open-source licence without Google integration, this would be similar to a custom ROM installed on a rooted device.<\/p>\n

In both cases, there are no Google apps installed on the device: including the Google Play Store and Google Play Services.<\/p>\n

However, users are still able to download APK files (Android Package files) from various sources online. There is also a popular “GApps” APK available online which includes all standard Google apps as well as Google Play Services and the company’s app store.<\/p>\n

This may restore standard Google apps and functionality to Huawei devices post-purchase, although it should be noted there may be numerous compatibility issues with the APKs and they will not be officially supported.<\/p>\n

Additionally, if Google decides to revoke Google Play Certification (Huawei was still listed<\/strong><\/a> as a Play Protect partner at the time of writing), then users may be unable to get Google apps running at all.<\/p>\n

It may be possible for users to submit their Google Service Framework ID through a Device Registration page<\/strong><\/a> to get the apps running on their phone, although Google may limit this functionality.<\/p>\n

Some of these workarounds may be possible, some may not be necessary. Either way, it is important to realise that even if Huawei implements an Android-based operating system, Google has the final say on whether device owners will be able to install its suite of applications.<\/p>\n

Now read: South African smartphone users, we will look after you \u2013 Huawei<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The inability to install Google apps such as Chrome, YouTube, and Gmail could be a major problem for smartphone owners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341028,"featured_media":158089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[59094,11014,35,1982],"class_list":["post-306944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-apk","tag-google-apps","tag-headline","tag-huawei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306944"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306946,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306944\/revisions\/306946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}