Huawei was unable to obtain an Android license for its Mate 30 smartphones due to its exclusion from the US market. The smartphones in the series have therefore turned to AOSP, an open-source version of Android stripped of Google services and applications. Unsurprisingly, early Huawei Mate 30 testers sought solutions to manually install Google services, including the valuable Play Store. Many users finally managed to install the Play Store on the Mate 30 in less than 10 minutes by retrieving the APK files needed to install the Google Services Framework on the Chinese site lzplay.net. The site allowed users to add Google Mobile Services without having to unblock the bootloader.
According to John Wu, the developer behind Magisk, a tool for rooting Android smartphones, lzplay.net relies on a backdoor present only on Huawei devices. This breach allows the APK proposed by the site to install other applications as “system” applications and to alter the firmware of the Mate 30.
Obviously, the operation of this method raises many concerns for the safety of smartphones. “It’s obvious that Huawei is aware of this lzplay application and explicitly authorizes its existence,” Wu accuses. According to him, the Chinese group allowed lzplay to exist. So that Google services could be accessed in one way or another on the Mate 30.
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Shortly after the declaration of John Wu, the site lzplay.net has been removed. For the moment, it is unclear whether the site was closed by QiHoo Jiagu. Which is the developer of the workaround, or if Huawei worried about its image and the safety of its users. In light of the latest developments in the case. Google reportedly decided to block the installation of the Play Store through the site lzplay.net.
Google blocks the installation of its applications on the Mate 30
As reported 9to5Google, Mate 30 who have installed the Play Store are no longer considered safe by SafetyNet, the server-side security mechanism implemented by Google to identify rooted or modified Android smartphones.
Soooo uhh this is new.
Since today's developments, Mate 30 Pro now fails SafetyNet. Last week it passed.
What the what pic.twitter.com/fPeaWUHD2v
— Alex Dobie (@alexdobie) October 1, 2019
Since SafetyNet’s turnaround, Google’s services added to Huawei smartphone have begun to malfunction. Some testers note, for example, that Google Pay now refuses to work. A few days ago, all the services installed via lzplay.net worked perfectly. Without the agreement of SafetyNet, applications like Netflix or Pokémon Go also become unusable. Is Google blocking the use of its services on Mate 30? We will tell you more as soon as possible.
So as per @alexdobie original tweet. Failed CTS check = no more Google Pay working. So I tested.
But considering this was working less than 2 days ago, this is not good. pic.twitter.com/0E8pGNtY97
— Damien Wilde (@iamdamienwilde) October 1, 2019
