Android phones sold in China use homebrew app stores instead of Google Play already, because of censorship.

This news, if true, will affect the devices made by Huawei and sold worldwide though.

Much more likely is a SaaS to manage distribution to various app stores from one interface.

Hmm, interesting. Does one already exist?

Yes, since each of Chinese android vendors(Huawei/Xiaomi/Oppo/Oneplus...) has their own "Google Play" alternative in China. Their are plenty of tools for uploading apps to each of these markets.

I'm sure one does but I don't know for certain. The difficulty comes in replacing the Google Services functionality. I suspect this responsibility could be pushed upstream into frameworks.

Lineage OS

Lineage isn't good enough on its own. 99% of Lineage OS users also install google play services and the google play store. You need to have a replacement for all of the closed source Google APIs for app developers to use. It's a much bigger undertaking than just recompiling the base OS from source.

You can install F-Droid or microG if you prefer; you don't need to use GApps.

Apart from that the other options you have, are (in random order): /e/, PureOS, KaiOS, SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, postmarketOS, among others.

I looked at MicroG and saw this almost immediately: This is alpha-grade software and not yet ready for production use. Do not use if you don't know what you're doing.

That's not going to be good enough for Huawei.

Similarly, all of those alternative OSes aren't going to work if they're not binary, and more importantly API compatible with Android + GMS.

If microG isn't good enough for Huawei, they can make it so. I mean, Huawei is a billion dollar corporation. I hope they do.

> That's not going to be good enough for Huawei.

The question is rather: given that it is FOSS is it good enough for them to extend the functionality on the short-term?

> Similarly, all of those alternative OSes aren't going to work if they're not binary, and more importantly API compatible with Android + GMS.

KaiOS has some compatibility (by design not fully compatible).

SailfishOS has an Android emulator. Other OSes could also use one such as Anbox.

/e/ and LineageOS are binary and API compatible with Android.

GMS is an issue, but given that Google is under a magnifying glass concerning monopoly position related to Android in EU I have some hope that alternatives for GMS (or FOSS implementations) could happen.

Or YALP, Aurora, or AuroraStore.

> Lineage isn't good enough on its own.

It's good for me¹. I want a device that does no phone home to its mothership outside my control. This requires Googles Services not to be installed.

I don't doubt that many nevertheless still use Googles Services.

¹ compared to Googles Android. I'm still desperately waiting for a device with mainline Linux support without blobs.

> without blobs

Will never happen.

Look at the PocketCHIP and OrangePi boards. Allwinner's chips can run Xorg, Wayland, do gigabit ethernet, handle eMMC using mainline Linux all without any proprietary firmware or closed source software.

Huawei phones have locked bootloaders and you can't fet the unlock key from them (there are potentially questionable 3rd party sites selling those, turning this into a market..)

If you do unlock the device and install Lineage OS (which doesn't support more than a few devices), you now basically have a crappy camera app, probably your FreeBuds won't work properly anymore and you really should have bought a different phone.

I love Lineage OS and used it for years (OPO and other phones). It would ruin my P30P though.

Huawei and Honor stopped providing bootloader unlock codes last year [1]. Wouldn't this make it impossible to install Lineage OS or another AOSP-based custom ROM?

[1] https://www.xda-developers.com/huawei-stop-providing-bootloa...

Beats me why more manufacturers don't just take Lineage.

Is the license still controllable by the US Commerce Department though? Because if so I don't think the Chinese would be interested