Google has issued a warning not to download its apps (or any apps) outside of the Play Store's "safe" environment or install them on Huawei's new phones And, of course, they are right

The warning was issued as part of a letter from Google to users (via 9to5google) written by Tristan Ostrowski, Google's legal director for the Play Store In it, he clarifies Mountain View's position on the Huawei ban, which prohibits companies like Google from installing their products on Huawei products

Huawei has been accused by the US government of basically being a spy agent for the Chinese government Huawei has been banned from selling cell phones in the US and US companies have been ordered not to cooperate with Huawei in any way, except to support products shipped before the ban

Google has essentially told Huawei and all Android users that they "may not use apps from anywhere other than the Google Play Store, and may not use any apps from the Google Play Store

First, let me clarify for those who don't know what sideloading means

Roughly speaking, it means downloading an application installation package (called an APK), opening it on your Android phone, and installing the app

Using this method, any user can use any app, even though they do not have permission to use the Play Store; if they want to install Gmail, they can go to the site, download the APK for Gmail, install it, and use it

However, downloading APKs online can lead to malware infection

Ironically, the Google Play store has hosted rogue applications many times In addition, Google Play's protection tools have been found to offer little protection to users

APKMirror is probably the most popular and reliable of all the repository sites; it is run by a website called Android Police I have used it several times and have never encountered any problems

The APK FAQ says this about how to check that all app packages are secure:

"All APKMirrorcom uploads are verified before publication [ie, you will know if the uploaded APK was signed by a real developer or by someone pretending to be a developer Note: APKMirrorcom has been protected against the Janus vulnerability in Android since day one"

Again, always exercise caution, but if you have a Huawei phone and want to sideload Google apps, this may be the way to do it