Huawei smartphones will continue to receive Android updates: the confirmation came from the Chinese company
After months of uncertainty, Huawei has confirmed that its devices will continue to receive Android updates. A condition that had been at risk since the United States banned the Chinese company in 2019, also complicating relations with U.S. companies such as Google.
The Temporary General License issued by the United States on May 20, 2019 after Trump's ban on Huawei expired on August 13. Because of this, many of the users who had purchased a Huawei device before that date feared they would end up with security and compatibility issues in the absence of future updates. A stalemate and critical situation especially between Huawei and Google, which however seem to have found an agreement for the breakthrough: the Chinese company has announced that it will be able to guarantee both Android updates and security patches.
Huawei and Android, guaranteed updates
Trump's ban against Huawei was triggered in May 2019 and was only aimed at devices put on sale after that date. But what was supposed to happen to all those sold up to May 20? The question was asked not only by Huawei and its U.S. partner companies, such as Google, but especially by users who had bought smartphones and tablets.
To remedy the problem, the Temporary General License agreement had been signed that allowed Huawei and Google to continue working together, but this expired on August 13. Asked on Twitter what would happen, Huawei responded via social on August 17 that both app and security updates continue for the devices.
In particular, all smartphones on which Google Play Store is preinstalled will continue to receive Google app updates as well. For later models shipped without Google Play Store, and for which Huawei has used an open source version of Android as the operating system, new apps and updates will run from Huawei's AppGallery.