Huawei is working on a Pilot Program to replace Android with a Russian OS

This year hasn’t been great for Huawei who has been struggling since the Trump administration banned it from doing business with US-based companies. Even though the government later allowed the company to work out a solution to the problem, a recent statement from Google confirmed that Huawei won’t have access to much of Google’s services including the Google Play Store.

This has forced Huawei to get help from an unlikely source. According to Reuters, Huawei is working on a pilot program to replace Android with Russian made Aurora operating system.

This is a pilot project. We see it as the first stage of launching the Russian OS on Huawei devices.

A Huawei spokesperson further confirmed it to Reuters that the company is interested in using Aurora as a replacement for Android. According to the spokesperson, Huawei is discussing terms with Russia’s Ministry of Communications.

Russia is discussing the use of Aurora OS on 360,000 Huawei tablets by August 2020. Huawei is interested in the project. It showed samples of tablets that could be used.

Aurora is made by a Russian telecom company named Rostelecom who is owned by the Russian state. The company is currently selecting tablets to test their OS and is exploring “various options for collaboration” with Huawei.

Huawei is currently on a 90 day grace period and once it expires, the company will lose access to Android updates. Huawei has developed its own OS but as previously reported, the OS is not ready and is definitely not a replacement for Android.