The whole world waited to see what Huawei would do about losing access to Google apps and Android. The Mate 30 was on its way. The Trump administration kept a tight leash on its US companies (including Google), and Huawei was in the spotlight. What would they do? What would they do?!

Huawei’s CEO, Richard Yu, conveniently didn’t really mention the Mate 30’s Google-incapability. Right at the end of his (extensive) keynote, he mentioned something that would pass over anyone’s head who hasn’t studied the mechanics of Google apps and GMS (Google Mobile Services). Huawei will now run on HMS (Huawei Mobile Services), he said. But why go into detail when the whole world is looking to you for answers? Madness!

And then?

Skip ahead a few weeks (we’re still relatively in the dark now), and someone discovers an app that opens a backdoor for Google apps to be downloaded on a Mate 30. It was just a matter of time before someone else found this door. That someone is a security researcher called John Wu, who posted the method using an app called LZPlay to add Google services to the phones. Within 24 hours, ‘someone’ has removed this capability and the app was disabled.

Suddenly, the Mate 30 ‘lost its clearance’ to download and install Google apps. Something only Google can do, according to Bloomberg. This process is known as a SafetyNet anti-abuse check, and rendered the LZPlay process void.

We are convinced this isn’t the first sneaky workaround system to get Google and Huawei in the same room again (ever watched Parent Trap?). The best we can hope for is that the US realises the error in their ways and retracts Huawei from the Entity List. But that may be too much to ask right now.

Source: Bloomberg