Huawei have got some impressive devices lined up, but as we know, the US Commerce Department has decreed that new Huawei devices can no longer access Google services - including the Play Store. This was supposed to be for devices publicly available after May 2019, but the deadline has been extended a few times, and the deadline is now 15 May. There have been a couple of other posts regarding whether Monzo will make its app available on Huawei AppGallery.
For me, not being able to access Google services feels like a deal breaker - particularly as we donāt yet know which app publishers will make their apps available, but Iād be interested to hear from other users about your intention to upgrade in future. Hereās a poll, and Iād be very interested in your input. This could also help Monzo determine whether it makes sense to make their app available on Huawei AppGallery.
Iām a Huawei user, and my next upgrade will be to Huawei
Iām a Huawei user, and my next upgrade will be to another brand on Android
Iām a Huawei user, and will switch to iOS
Iām a Huawei user, and will wait it out - in case the US Administration changes its mind
Iām a non-Huawei user, but interested to switch to Huawei
Iām a non-Huawei user, with no intention of switching
Putting aside all the spying conspiracies, this is too much of a risk for me.
Apps that are available now are not guaranteed to be supported long term either. If the demand for a particular app doesnāt make it worthwhile for them to maintain theyāll just pull the plug on it and there will be some (like Monzo) who just wonāt support them from the outset.
Is this even possible? I was under the impression that the Monzo app relies on Google services for parts of its functionality, so even if it were to be on the Huawei AppGallery, it wouldnāt actually run on the phone. [Disclaimer: Iām not an Android user myself, so might have an overly-simplistic view of the situation.]
My sense is that it ought to be. Kindle Fire users have a similar challenge, with neither Google APIs nor the Play Store available to them. Amazon has developed APIs that are equivalent to Googleās, so many app publishers have repurposed their app for those devices.
However, the work involved in maintaining a third codebase would make this expensive, and likely slow Monzo down in their release of functionality on the two existing platforms.
This is very much my stance - Huawei make some nice phones but they donāt do anything that a different manufacturer does. Even if the risk is very small itās enough for me to discount Huawei for someone else.
Up until this, Huaweiās USP in the west was that they made very well specād devices at a much lower cost than competitors and their build quality was typically very good, especially on the mid to high range.
The specs on their Ā£150 phones would match up to what competitors would charge Ā£250 for. But the drawback for a long time was their heavy-handed skinning and UX changes to Android.
So I was delighted when they released the Nexus 6P with Google, and I bought the Gold one. Pure Android and fantastic build quality. Or so I thought. Turns out basically every 6P had a battery issue that would cause the phones to randomly shut off all the time. It turned into a giant class action lawsuit in the States. And I lost a lot of faith in Huawei. They blamed it on Google, which never sat right with me since it was a hardware issue and not a software one. It was basically the nail in the coffin for the Nexus line, and Google went on to launch the Pixel line and building hardware themselves.
But a Huawei device - hell, any Android device - without Google services, is unfortunately a total non starter in my opinion. Itās a large reason why Amazonās Fire Phone failed.
Android being an open platform is brilliant for independent developers. But it was never going to get many resources from Google themselves. Googleās priority for a long time has been their proprietary software stacks. Decoupling that stuff from Android for most users ends up being a lesson in frustration and hoop-jumping. If you know what youāre doing, you can get the core Google apps back on there - but itās the interconnected Google Play Services etc, the apps that rely on them, and the distribution model that is a bit more painful.
There is so much variety in the Android ecosystem and various price points that I really donāt think there is a reason to buy a Huawei device and lose out on Google ecosystem access. Ultimately, your best bet if you were looking at Huawei would be to grab a Xiaomi device, which in many cases are actually even better value than Huawei these days and still have the Google ecosystem.
Thanks both for the clarification. I would class this as ānot possibleā then, since the original suggestion is for Monzo to (potentially) āmake their app available on Huawei AppGalleryā. What is needed is for Monzo to create a third version of their app, which they could then make available. As you say, that is probably just about possible, but not likely, especially given what @simonb says about Huaweiās prospects are.
And Iām not even sure if rebuilding without Google Services is possible, because Monzo relies on Google merchant data for making transactions look nice, and using those data require that you use Google Maps, which is what required Monzo to switch from Apple Maps to Google Maps on the iOS app in the early days.
Ive just looked on the huawei app store and monzo comes up buts says not yet available
Iām under the impression that Huawei are reaching out to the big app players and offering small financial gains for them to publish their apps on Huawei Store.
At the end of a Huawei contract. Moved to a Ā£10 monthly sim only deal and gonna let the handset die before looking for an alternative but am very, very unlikely to go Huawei again. Itās a great handset, but as others have pointed out, there are so many options out there, it seems daft to go for something with such an uncertain future on Android.
Might switch to iOS though, just because I now have a MacBook for music-making reasons and wondering if it would make life more convenient to upsticks and move (nearly) wholesale to the Apple ecosystem.
The integration between Mac OS and iOS (Airdrop, shared clipboard, continuity, etc) is extremely convenient. Donāt know if itās possible to do the same kind of things with Android+Mac OS.
You can get pretty close, but it would require a heavy adoption of google services and apps on your MacBook; abandoning Appleās services completely except possibly Apple Music. Given the new iPhone SE, the continuity trade offs that come with using android are no longer worth the money youāll save buying a cheaper phone imo, unless you have a strong hatred for iOSās limitations.
I bought a P40 in order to begin taking a look. It made sense within the context of some of the work Iām involved in. When you first set it up, youāre able to clone everything from your previous Android phone, which copies over all apps, settings and email accounts. However, you then canāt update the apps, so would need to do this regularly (wipe and start again) in order to stay up to date.
On the plus side, the device looks and feels very high quality. The camera is incredible, and the fingerprint sensor embedded within the screen is pretty impressive too.
Loving the P40pro. Almost everything āclone phonedā over from the P20pro except the NatWest & Barclays app. The Monzo app transferred easily last month when I got the phone but today itās asking me to upgrade.
Really donāt want to risk sideloading banking apps
