Huawei has responded to Facebook’s move to suspend business ties with the Chinese telecom giant by tweeting to its customers that all devices currently on market shelves and in stock will have a “normal” possibility to download apps like Facebook and its other apps, like WhatsApp or Instagram, from Huawei’s AppGallery store.
Reports emerged earlier in the day that Facebook had ditched pre-installing its apps, WhatsApp and Instagram, on Huawei devices, including those models already on the market. However, the company declined to comment on when exactly the development was set to take effect.
Earlier, Google suspended Android system support for new Huawei devices, but users were reported to have a loophole at their disposal – an opportunity to download Google apps via non-official stores. It still remains unclear whether the US tech firm will take any measures to root out the installations.
Long-standing trade tensions between the US and China reached a climax late last month when Washington barred Huawei equipment from its domestic market and tried to push its European allies to follow suit.
The US attempted to justify its actions by claiming that Huawei was working in collaboration with the Chinese government and spying on its users at Beijing's behest, although both the company and Chinese authorities have vehemently denied the allegations on several occasions. A Huawei representative insisted that their codes are sufficiently safe and that the company has never operated on directives from the government.
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The response didn’t stop many US companies from acting in accordance with Washington’s blacklist. Google was among the first to announce that it would suspend providing Huawei devices updates to its software, closely followed by others halting their business ties with the Chinese firm – Panasonic, NTT Docomo of Japan, as well as chip companies such as ARM, Intel, and Qualcomm.