Russian BQ phone maker is banned from Google’s GMS, could use Huawei HarmonyOS?

It’s not new for us to see sanctions on a smartphone maker, and recently a Russian smartphone maker – BQ has been banned from using the core Android environment – Google Mobile Services (GMS). However, a report suggests that the BQ could turn towards Huawei HarmonyOS operating system after the continuation of Google services.

News coming from Sputnik shows that the Russian phone maker – BQ’s general manager – Vladimir Buznov has recently received a letter from Google that U.S. law prohibits the provision of services to Russia. This letter also presents the latest halt in services including both software and hardware.

That’s not the only part of this story that has hit hard in visions, as the report allegedly mentioned that BQ is already testing Huawei HarmonyOS and new BQ smartphones with HarmonyOS are likely to launch in the second of this year without Google services.

This is quite a statement published in the report, however, we don’t have any confirmation in this regard from Huawei.

Old device:

Buzanov said that the company’s GMS-certified phones will continue to work as usual and there’s could be no issues in new devices launching in the future using the Android operating system.

Google’s Suspension:

Google has issued a notice to developers in Russia to suspend Play Store and its services in Russia for app and games. The in-app purchases and subscriptions will also be suspended, and Android phone users in Russia will no longer be able to make software purchases or subscriptions through the Play Store.

Huawei:

Related to BQ, Huawei has also been sanctioned by the U.S., which prohibits the company from doing business with American firms. Due to these actions, Huawei also cannot use Google Mobile Services (GMS) and had to introduce the HarmonyOS operating system.

At HDC 2019, the first version of this operating system came into its presence and the company initially installed it in smart TVs. HDC 2020 brought us the mobile version of this software that was launched specifically for Chinese consumers.