Google has applied for licence to work with Huawei

A recent report has stated that Google has applied for a US licence to work with Huawei officially once more. If the application is accepted, it would mean Huawei could use Google Play services on its devices again. 

Vice President of Google Play and Android, Sameer Samat, confirmed the move to DPA, a German news site, while speaking with them during an interview. 

If the US regulatory bodies approve of the licence, it would mean Huawei could resume being an official partner to Google and make use of all of its services on phones and tablets again. 

Whether or not it will is another matter. Over the past nine months or so, there has been conflicting information given by Huawei executives about whether or not they want to use Google Play. 

Sometimes when asked, the message is "we're committed to Google", while on one occasion an executive has said that they'd push through with their own HMS (Huawei Media Services) even if the trade ban is lifted. 

Huawei's US trade bad has been well documented by now, and is approaching almost a full year since the company was barred from working with Google and other US companies. 

In that time, the manufacturer has invested heavily in its own services, as it tries to build up an ecosystem to rival Google and Apple. 

It currently has around 3,000 engineers whose purpose is to help developers get their apps on the App Gallery, according to a recent tweet from the global head of PR. 

With this time invested and the improvement it's undoubtedly made to Huawei's own offering, the company has even started launching phones in Europe/UK without Google Play onboard. 

There's a fair amount of scepticism over whether or not Huawei can succeed with its own app offerings and ecosystem, but having recently teamed up with other major Chinese phone makers, it's clear the manufacturers want to reduce their reliance on Google. 

It is worth noting, however, that there has been a less-talked-about situation with Microsoft, but Huawei was recently allowed to start working with the PC giant, so that it can build Windows laptops again.

If Google's application is accepted, we'd be surprised if Huawei didn't take up the option to use Play Services again but, hold this space, this story isn't close to over yet. 

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