UPDATE
We have just learned that Huawei will be able to provide security updates to older smartphones. Also, Google apps will still be updated on these devices.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t get more information on how this will work without the temporary general license, but we’ll hear more from the company very soon.
Meanwhile, this news should come as a relief to existing Huawei smartphone users who were worried about losing out on important updates in the future.
Original Story
Huawei was added to the US Commerce Department’s Entity List in May 2019. This made American companies to drop their businesses with Huawei. However, the US government granted Temporary General Licence (TGL) to the Chinese telecom giant so that it could work with Google to provide security updates and Google apps updates to its older smartphones and tablets released before the ban. But now, this license has expired on August 13.
According to The Washington Post (via XDA Developers), this temporary license by the US government was not only meant for Huawei to provide necessary updates to its older smartphones/tablets. But was also granted so that some US rural telecommunication companies using Huawei telecommunication equipment could replace them with alternatives.
Now, with the expiration of this license and unclear or no statements from the parties involved suggests older Huawei/Honor smartphones and tablets, which until now received security patches may not continue to do so.
The biggest problem with this issue is that these devices will may no longer pass SafetyNet Attestation. That means banking and payment apps, as well as certain games, will stop working for the users.
As of now, it is unclear if the Temporary General Licence (TGL) will be renewed. If it does not happen, users will have to sadly ditch their older Huawei/Honor smartphones for good.
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