How the absence of Google affects Huawei handsets

Thousands of years ago, the Roman Emperor Claudius declared that “To do nothing evil is good, but to wish nothing evil is better.”

Twenty years ago, Google adopted “don’t be evil” as its unofficial motto, and even wrote it into the firm’s inaugural code of conduct.

Today, the boundaries between good and evil are often so blurred, it’s hard to tell whether either party in a dispute can claim the moral high ground.

Take the current impasse between Huawei and Google, for instance.

Deteriorating relations between America and China have seen the two countries trading political and economic blows for some time now.

The consequences of this trade war have been felt far and wide, and foremost among the victims was Chinese manufacturing giant Huawei.

Despite having previously made its Android operating system available with no issues, Google has been banned from working with Huawei for over a year.

As a result, Huawei handsets now feature a proprietary operating system rather than Android.

But what does that mean for consumers?

Pros and cons

The latest Huawei P40 Pro is an undeniably sophisticated handset, with a 6.5-inch screen, industry-leading cameras and up to 512GB of storage.

However, the absence of Android means many of today’s most widely installed apps are missing.

There’s no Gmail or G Suite, no Google search engine and no YouTube. Productivity tools like Slack and Zoom have also been notable by their absence.

Some tools can be installed through external app stores, though it’s unclear whether these will remain viable and fully safe over time.

And while there are workarounds to install conventional apps, like transferring them from an older Huawei handset, such cheats may be beyond the technical acumen of many customers.

Huawei’s App Gallery is intuitive to use and slick on the P40 range, and some apps can be pasted as website shortcuts onto the home screen – a respectable workaround.

Even so, the user experience is far clunkier than on Android, where everything is available in one guise.

Will the Huawei and Google situation resolve itself?

A great deal depends on the American Presidential election later this year.

It’s in neither country’s interests to continue applying hundreds of billion dollars’ worth of tariffs to the other’s products and services, but both sides currently seem entrenched.

If Donald Trump is voted out of office, his replacement may wish to adopt a more conciliatory approach to a country whose population dwarfs America’s.

However, by the time Google services become available to Chinese manufacturers again, Huawei may have decided to retain its own expensively-developed OS.

Some analysts have suggested a third major smartphone platform would actually be healthy, breaking the American duopoly of Android and iOS.

The best scenario might involve Huawei handsets being sold with a proprietary OS alongside essential Google productivity tools like Gmail.

For now, smartphone buyers continue to have a fairly stark choice between Huawei and Google – one or the other, but not both.