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Huawei’s relationship with Android has been a tough one ever since the 2019 trade ban that cut the company off from Google apps. Now, it’s looking like Huawei is preparing to further give up on Android with a new version of HarmonyOS.
Prior to the 2019 US ban, Huawei was one of the largest Android smartphone manufacturers on the planet, and had built a huge business both in China and globally selling its rather good smartphones. That quickly changed, with the abrupt removal of the Play Store on new Huawei devices leading to dropping sales figures and the company scrambling to come up with alternate app stores and software for new devices.
Huawei’s efforts to “replace” Android came to a head in 2021 with the launch of “HarmonyOS,” an Android-based platform that would make more drastic changes to the experience, while still retaining the library of sideloadable apps available on Android.
