Google blocks Huawei phones from Android updates after Trump blacklisting

Key security and software updates will be unavailable after the Trump administration blacklisted the Chinese smartphone maker

Google has suspended Huawei’s Android license after the Trump administration blacklisted the Chinese phone manufacturer over security concerns.

The move will prevent Huawei devices from receiving key software and security updates, as well as potentially affecting their ability to access popular Google apps like Maps and YouTube.

Huawei is one of a number of phone manufacturers which use the Google-developed Android operating system on their phones and tablets.

Existing customers will be able to update their phones and apps, but will not be able to update to a newer version of the Android operating system if one becomes available. That could leave the company’s phones without key security and feature updates.

Android said it had taken steps to “comply with the recent US government actions”.

This is in reaction to the Trump administration’s announcement that Huawei has been added to the US Department of Commerce’s “Entity List”.

The list is compiled of firms which are believed to be “engaged in activities that are contrary to US national security or foreign policy interest”, and bans US companies from doing business with Huawei without a specific license.

Meanwhile, retired brigadier general Robert Spalding, the former senior director for strategy at the National Security Council, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that the UK “must recognise” the strength of US feeling on Huawei.

He wrote: “Other nations must not make the mistake of thinking President Trump’s recent executive order banning companies like Huawei from US networks is merely an afterthought of the trade war.

“The severity of President Trump’s declaration underscores just how seriously the US views this issue, and the UK must recognise this strength of feeling.

“To miss the significance of his actions would be a grave misjudgement of how seriously we take our security in an ever-more dangerous world.”

Neither Google nor Huawei were immediately available for comment on the latest developments.

Additional reporting by agencies