A new rumor is brewing around the possibility of several major Chinese smartphone brands, including Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, and OnePlus, developing Android versions that do not rely on Google Mobile Services (GMS). As a result, Huawei's devices lost access to key Google services like the Play Store, Maps, and Gmail, forcing the company to develop its own operating system, HarmonyOS. With the announcement of the Huawei Mate 30 series last week, everyone was also surprised about Huawei's announcement to stick it out with their own mobile platform called Huawei Mobile Services. This is to replace the de facto Google Mobile Services that most Android devices have been using. For those who are not familiar, Google Mobile Services (GMS) is are services and apps that are provided by Google under license with any Android operating system. This is comprised of Google Play Services, Google Play Store and the suite of apps like GMail, Google Maps, Chrome, YouTube, among others. On the other hand, Huawei has an equivalent service -- the Huawei Mobile Services. However, the unpredictable trade ban by the US government has forced Huawei to take an independent path, one that does not rely on Google and its services. Read more in our articles including "Xiaomi, OPPO, others allegedly plan to develop Android versions that don’t rely on Google apps" and "Burning questions about the Huawei Mobile Services".
