Huawei Mate 30 Permanently Locked Bootloader Dashes Google Play Hopes

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro is probably one of the best Android smartphones to be released this year but almost every piece has to inform users about its most critical flaw. Due to conflicts with the US, Huawei is force to ship its latest and greatest without one of the most crucial parts of the Android experience: Google Play Store and services. Unfortunately, Huawei may have just closed the door on users who might have hoped to unofficially install Google's software on the phone.

Huawei wasn't able to gain any further extension of its US blacklisting which expired in August. As such, it wasn't able to gain the necessary certification for the Huawei Mate 30 to ship with Google Play Services and, therefore, Google's apps. That significantly lessen the phones overall value, despite possessing some of the best cameras and features in town.

There was a brief flicker of hope among Android users in the form of sideloading Google Play Services on the phone. That, however, requires unlocking the phone's bootloader, something that most OEMs don't let their users do for security and proprietary reasons. That does come with its own risks but users might be willing to take the leap of faith to get Google apps on their expensive Mate 30s.

Unfortunately, after a slight misunderstanding, a Huawei spokesperson clarified to Android Authority that the company has no plans to unlock the bootloader on the Huawei Mate 39 series or easily let users do so without hacks and security exploits. It may not be closing the door on doing that in the future but, as of the moment, that's the official stance.

Huawei may have no choice but to make that statement in order to discourage the unofficial, arguably illegal, and potentially harmful distribution and installation of Google Play APKs among users. It definitely opens a can of worms that Huawei can do without at this time. Unfortunately, that also makes the Huawei Mate 30 phones less useful outside of China.