Immuni no longer works on Huawei smartphones

Immuni is no longer compatible (at the moment) with Huawei and Honor smartphones. It is likely that the malfunctions of the first hours are related to Google Mobile Services

A little more than 24 hours after the official launch on the App Store and Google Play Store, Bending Spoon has already released the first update for Immuni on the Android platform. Reading the changelog of the app (i.e., the changes made compared to the last available version) we find out that some bugs have been fixed that, evidently, led to some malfunctions.

The most interesting news, however, is another: Immuni is no longer compatible with Huawei and Honor smartphones. As we had already reported, in fact, since the very first hours of the app users with devices from the Chinese manufacturer (Honor, let's remember, is in fact a sub-brand of Huawei) complained about the inability to use the app due to problems with Bluetooth and difficulties in configuring the display notification system. Evidently, as mentioned, Bending Spoon itself can't do anything to solve the technical issues behind the malfunctions and decided to pull the plug.

Why Immuni doesn't work on Huawei smartphones

The Milan-based developer hasn't disclosed the reasons that prompted it to remove support for Huawei smartphones. As we had said, however, it is likely that the long-standing issue of Trump's ban on the Chinese manufacturer is behind Immuni's malfunctions. Active since May 2019, the ban prevents Huawei from having any business relationship with U.S. companies. Including Google.

The Chinese manufacturer has thus been forced to say goodbye to the version of Android used until last year, replacing it with the "open source" version (in fact identical to Android Stock installed on some devices), but without Google Mobile Services. It is very likely that Immuni, which integrates the API and the display notification system developed by Google and Apple, needs one of Google's mobile services, without which it cannot maintain Bluetooth connectivity (just to give an example).

An obstacle that Bending Spoon evidently cannot get around and, for this reason, has decided to remove support for Huawei and Honor devices.

How to use Immuni with Huawei

Owners of a Huawei or Honor device who would like to use Immuni just have to wait. As you can see on the "Download" page of the official website, a version for Huawei's App Gallery (the store of applications compatible with the Android version "customized" by the Chinese manufacturer) is being developed and, probably, it will be possible to download it in the next few days.