Google News will stop supporting non-certified smartphones

Google News Thanks to unique features such as RCS messaging and a handy web client, they have become an essential SMS application for Android for many users. According to the portal 9to5Google since the end of the year Google intends its application News will stop working on non-certified Android devices. When should this happen and who will be most affected?

The change was detected in the application code

In the latest version of an application that Google has uploaded to the Play Store, we have been able to decompile lines of code that pertain to possible future features. First of all, Google may or may not implement these features, and the interpretation of 9to5Google may not be accurate. With Google News 7.2, now in the Play Store, a new notification has been added to the app code.

As of March 31, reports will no longer work on non-certified facilities, including this one.

What does the term non-certified device mean? Your Android smartphone must go through a Google certification process before it can be released. Certified devices can then ship with a pre-installed suite of Google apps, including important ones like the Google Play store. In the past, these Google apps could be manually installed on an uncertified Android device. At present, however, the presence of Google Play Services is required for the functionality of Google applications.

The reason could be end-to-end encryption

About two years ago, Google even began preventing non-certified devices from signing in to a Google Account. In the case of Google News, however, a certified device was not yet required and they could also be operated on non-certified smartphones. However, from March 31, it will lose access to this application, which is probably related to end-to-end encryption. Non-certified equipment is mainly sold on the Chinese market. In the last two years, however, it is also offered on our market by one of the best-selling brands today.

Of course, we mean the Chinese company Huawei, whose smartphones have not been Google-certified since May 2019. The reason is a ban on the US Department of Commerce selling US technology to this manufacturer. As a result, the company lost not only the certification of its smartphones, but also a number of suppliers of their components. So if you are an owner of one of the newer Huawei models and you are using the Google News app, you need to be prepared for it to stop working for you on March 31st.