In what would be a major blow to Huawei in the ongoing US-China trade battle, Facebook has apparently blocked any further pre-installs of its apps on Huawei phones, reports Reuters.
According to the report, customers who already have Huawei phones will still be able to use its apps and receive updates, Facebook told Reuters. But new Huawei phones will no longer be able to have Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram apps pre-installed.
Pre-installs are largely deals between app companies and smartphone OEMs, wherein the hardware maker puts apps by default on a customer’s phone, to drive traffic for these apps. Apart from Facebook, Twitter too comes pre-installed on Huawei phones. There however, has been no such blockage from Twitter’s end till now.
Facebook’s diktat is similar in nature to what Google had issued days earlier. Google said that it would no longer provide Android software for Huawei phones after a 90-day reprieve granted by the U.S. government expires in August. However, Google’s Playstore and all Google apps will still be available for current models of Huawei phones, including those which have been manufactured but are yet to ship.
In case of Facebook though, the company will stop pre-installs for the un-shipped models as well, thus signalling a harsher stance as compared to its larger rival Google.
For now though, since access to Playstore remains, buyers of Huawei phones can download the Facebook app from play store as well.
