Huawei without google in 2023, it’s over for me

The DRM Info application even indicates that the Huawei Mate 50 Pro that I test has DRM Widevine L1 to watch SVOD content in HD, which should not be the case (but I have to check this with Huawei).

Could Huawei find Google’s services on its smartphones ?

The United States could soften certain sanctions against companies subject to embargo. This would allow Huawei to work with American companies, and why not find the Google software suite on its products. But nothing has yet been acted.

Huawei has been under American embargo since 2019 and cannot work with companies from the country of Uncle Sam. Therefore, it can no longer use Google’s software suite in its smartphones, which constitutes a major handicap on the Western market. Things could soon change, According to Bloomberg.

The US trade department could, according to the newspaper, Apply technology sharing restrictions For companies placed on blacklist. Huawei could therefore, theoretically, work with United States Societies.

Could Huawei bring google back to his phones ?

However, the companies concerned should submit to new standards decided by the Commerce Department. The latter have not been communicated but we imagine that they will be drastic. If Huawei does not fold, the situation will not move. If this is the case, the firm could use certain American technologies. The Commerce Department does not specify which ones, but we know that they are both software and material. They could therefore include Google’s services.

The question will be whether Huawei really has the desire. Under embargo for more than three years now, The Chinese firm learned to do without the help of the Mountain View giant. Selling at the start of her Android smartphones without any Google software (Play Store included) she decided to go ahead by offering her own operating system: Harmony OS. Return to Android would be almost synonymous with going back. But we can hardly imagine it not to grasp this chance.

The embargo had been decided by the Trump administration in 2019, who suspected Huawei of matches with the Chinese government. We know that Washington very closely monitors the companies of the Middle Empire, and more particularly their links with the Party. A question of national security which had been decided in the most abrupt manner which is. In any case, Huawei has not abandoned telephony. Recently, the manufacturer presented the Mate 50 as well as the Mate 50 Pro, its two new high -end terminals.

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Huawei Google

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In 2023, Huawei still clung to compensate for the absence of Google mobile services (GMS) on its smartphones. But I hang up the gloves because I have my slap and you should do the same.

This week, I test the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, the latest flagship of the Chinese manufacturer decreed excommunicado from the Android smartphones cartel since 2019. I’m not going to redo you a story lesson, you are certainly all aware of the setbacks between Huawei and the US, depriving the latter’s smartphones of Google mobile services (GMS).

Last year, after testing the Huawei P50 Pro, I had also conceded to the manufacturer and its fans that yes, Huawei without Google, it could work in 2022. But at the time, I was already wondering why hell it would be necessary to get bored with such a wobbly user experience. And this, as partially functional as it may be!

This year, I am much less magnanimous and in 2023, Huawei without Google, it will also be without me.

It still works as well, so still as bad in fact

“But Antoine, you tell anything as usual. You are not tired of moaning for nothing? You can use all Google applications- all!- If we tinker a little.””

So already, no. It is not true. Then I know the song. And it’s true, we can hack. And it’s true, you can use Google Maps, Gmail, Google Drive and many other mainstream applications like Whatsapp, Netflix, YouTube, etc.

Even Uber and Uber Eats work and manage to geolocate me correctly. “Phew”, for a neocitadin whose ancestors probably picked more bays than they chased the mammoth, you cannot imagine my relief.

The DRM Info application even indicates that the Huawei Mate 50 Pro that I test has DRM Widevine L1 to watch SVOD content in HD, which should not be the case (but I have to check this with Huawei).

In fact, it is very simple. You only need three applications: Petal Search, Aurora Store and GSPACE.

Petal Search

The first, and the least effective, is Petal Search. It is a native application of Huawei which serves as a search engine or rather as a APK file aggregator to install most applications that are not found on the Appgallery.

Except that many APKs may either not be installed on the smartphone, or do not start once installed because authentication via your Google account does not work, for lack of GMS. But for applications without direct link with GMS, it works. The only problem is that each application must be manually updated.

Aurora Store

We then go to the second solution: Aurora Store. This alternative applications store allows you to download and install apps and games as on the Google Play Store. Some work very well, others very badly. This was particularly the case for mobile games in my specific case. Apex Legends nor Call of Duty Mobile did not work, the applications closed on their own after being launched.

The application itself remains a good open-source customer for the play store. You can also create an anonymous session without having to enter your Google identifiers. The interface is very neat and rather ergonomic.

Gspace

This is where the third palliative comes in and, in reality, the only worth: GSPACE. This application creates a kind of virtual space in which your Huawei smartphone behaves like a normal Android smartphone, with GMS. You can install applications via the Play Store, as if nothing was.

Except that you cannot add all applications from this space. But you can clone certain apps already installed on your smartphone to integrate them in GSPACE. And it is this function that makes GSPACE ultra useful. Even essential. Basically, my “magic” solution was to download all the applications I wanted via the Aurora Store then to clone them in GSPACE.

Uber, Uber Eats, my N26 bank application, Apex Legends Mobile, Amazon Prime Video . All applications downloaded via the Aurora Store that did not work worked perfectly in GSPACE. Sometimes, for Slack for example, authentication via my Google account was walking normally while it blocked me from the application when I launched it outside GSPACE.

But there too, GSPACE is not a perfect remedy against hypogooglicosis.

The Empire of the right medium is no longer

Yes, GSPACE is a great application that allows HUAWEI users to fill many shortcomings abandoned by the manufacturer. But it is once again an imperfect solution.

It is always impossible to use Google Wallet for contactless payment. And I know that there is an alternative called curve that many huaweists recommend on forums. Except that if you want to pay with your connected watch, you just can’t be able to. Far from being crippling, this remains yet another concession to make.

It’s a lot there, no? And even though you would be a hack of hack, a nerd 3.0 who loves to hack his daily life by gaming each stratum of his user experience, I ask you: all that why.

Really, it’s not troll. And I do not sincerely wish to take anyone high, nor make fun of those among you who use a Huawei smartphone. But by taking all the elements mentioned above, how can we justify Huawei’s offer today? I’m talking about these 4G smartphones that run Android 11 emptied from its substance and are sold more than 1000 euros.

Maybe for someone who does not care about software experience and is mainly interested in hardware, the excellent technical sheet of Huawei flagships is sufficient. Perhaps a photophile, which is only interested in the photo module, is a kidney of Google services. Or maybe you are satisfied with the Huawei P30 Pro, one of the best smartphones of its time (2019 huh) which still holds up and has GMS.

But there, I’m talking about buying a new Huawei smartphone without google services in 2023. Personally, I could not consider it in the long term. And I find that the testers and other tech journalists should take responsibility and put Huawei in front of this status quo which no longer holds.

Huawei without google in 2023, it works, but by boxing. And I run far from here with my Nothing Phone (1) who has the Google Play Store.