I’m a game developer for my day job and was recently looking through a large number of crash logs that had the following in them:
InitializationException: Firebase modules failed to initialize: messaging (missing dependency)
Long story short, the Huawei ban means people can’t have Google Play Services (Google bad right, no loss here?). The problem of course is our game is now crashing because they don’t have something we fundamentally expect on Android devices.
As a small startup, we can’t afford to replace all our Play Service API calls to support this small group. Usually cases like this come from restrictions people put on themselves (Staying on Android 5.0, running a degoogled device, etc) but these are innocent people who deserve none of this treatment.
I’m starting to think sanctions against things that affect the general population are really stupid. But alas, if people realize it as slowly as me we’re never going to a more free world without sanctions.
Doesn’t Huawei have their own tracking and analytics though? And as far as I know their OS isn’t open source.
Yes they have their own replacement for google services, which is necessary for location, notifications, etc. Maybe also tracking, but I’d rather have my data stored in China than the US, because my countries government agencies certainly dont share data with China (i’m much less certain regarding the US).
Fair enough. I personally still prefer LineageOS which in theory stores that data nowhere though.