How to install Google Play Services on the Huawei Mate 30 Series
Despite Huawei continuing to cross its fingers and find some way, shape or form of workaround for the ongoing ban placed upon it by the US government, the company still went ahead and unveiled two truly new smartphones to the world in September 2019: the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro.
As much as it was clear at the phones’ launch that the company wished its ordeal would have concluded by now, it simply wasn’t to be. As such, both new Mate Series devices boast superb hardware and the latest build of Huawei’s own EMUI 10 (atop Android 10) but no mention was made of Google Play Services – a near-essential part of the user experience on any Android phone released outside of China.
While Google Play Services’ absence may be the biggest roadblock to both the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro’s success on store shelves, all is not lost. And, actually, Huawei is now saying that even if it was allowed to include Google apps and services it wouldn’t, and it has been confirmed that Chinese phone makers including itself, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are working together to create their own alternative.
If you’re comfortable putting your faith in a service from a seeminglyunknown source, there is a simple way to add Google Play Services to the Huawei Mate 30, Mate 30 Pro and any other Huawei handset lacking them,running EMUI 9.1.1 or newer.
An updated solution came after the original was killed by Huawei and the rogue app developer back in October 2019, but the new workaround works on the Mate 30 Pro and potentially work on any other compatible Huawei or Honor phone without Google Play Services pre-installed.
Note: Our successful attempt was achieved using a pre-launch Chinese Huawei Mate 30 Pro – the bootloader was/is locked.
Here’s what you’ll need to install Google Play on your Mate 30 Pro:
You should then have access to Google Play and the services that Google offers on Android. There are a few apps that won’t work, namely the likes of Netflix due to the lack of SafetyNet support, but most social media, productivity and banking apps should run without any issue – we’ve not run into any issues with apps downloaded via Google Play thus far, anyway.
Once installed, feel free to head to Settings > Apps, tap the LZPlay app (it’s in Mandarin so it’s easier to look for the icon) and tap Uninstall. You’ll then revoke the device administrator settings and allow you to remove the app. It’s that simple!
Author: Lewis Painter, Contributor
Lewis Painter was once a Tech Advisor Senior Staff Writer. He covers everything from iPhone to AirPods, plus a range of smartphones, tablets, laptops and gaming hardware.
