New Huawei phones will not have Facebook, WhatsApp & Instagram pre-installed

Might not be a bad thing for those who dislike pre-installed apps.

Zhangxin Zheng | June 08, 2019, 12:06 PM

If you are a Huawei user, you might feel reassured by the recent positive developments.

But there's another twist.

Enter Facebook.

New Huawei handsets without Facebook pre-installed apps

According to Reuters on June 7, Facebook Inc announced that that future Huawei phones will not have Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram apps pre-installed.

These include Huawei handsets that have yet to leave the factory.

However, existing Huawei phones will still be able to receive updates and use the apps.

Current Huawei phones with access to Google Playstore can still download all apps under Facebook Inc.

But if Google chooses to cease its software support to Huawei phones after the 90-day reprieve, the new phones will not have access to Google Playstore.

This means new Huawei phones will not be able to download Facebook too.

Both Facebook and Huawei declined to comment, Reuters reported.

[Update on 10 June, 12:20pm] Here's a statement from Huawei Singapore:

"Facebook is a third-party application, and can be installed and used without any issue on Huawei devices."

Top photo collage from Huawei Facebook and Ashley Tan