Huawei has announced a decision that is raising a lot of eyebrows: it has decided to ban third-party launchers from its latest Huawei or Honor smartphones meant for the Chinese market. While the decision shall rob users of using their Android devices as freely as they would like, it is not wholly unjustified.
The decision essentially entails that users shall no longer be able to change to any third-party launcher, including ones as famous as Nova or Action, from the default system launcher of EMUI 9. It is common in China for sellers and online retailers to recast a smartphone’s original software to allow the installation of third-party launchers brimming with pop-up advertisements. This leads to numerous problems like the phone hanging and other software-related issues that Huawei’s customer service has to deal with, and which do not owe their occurrence to the company.
Huawei’s decision comes as an attempt to nip the problem in the bud by banning such apps from their phones altogether. While it may be justified by the company, it is still a breach of user freedom and has Western users concerned; they have decided to air their concerns to the company before Huawei chooses to make the change global. An alternative solution may include white-listing some third-party apps which are known to be reliable, it still comprises of risks of excluding smaller and newly emerging launchers. As of the present moment, one can do no more than wait to see how the users of the smartphones in question react to the change.
