Hey.

Reading the comments on our website or in any other place, I come across categorical opinions when my own ideas about beauty spread throughout the world. In the aspect of Huawei / Honor and their devices without Google mobile services, but with Android and all the capabilities of modern smartphones, personal opinions take the form of an imperative: no one needs Android without Google! And to realize that now the world has changed and Android can successfully exist without Google, it is almost impossible. There is a certain inertia in the perception of the world, because for many years we spoke of Android and meant Google, but now it is not so.

Initially, I planned to touch on this issue a little in an article about the perception of Android, but the textures were accumulated on separate material, I did not see any point in mixing everything in one heap. Who are these people who use Huawei / Honor without Google services and do not know about their inhuman suffering (judging by the rating scale of a spherical commentator in the virtual space)? I studied the issue in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad and small towns, asked what I like and what not, what it is like, life without Google, and whether it is. I will share some of these stories with you, and we will start with Alexander M., it’s still interesting when a person professionally sells smartphones and has his own point of view on this. In order not to break the text with my questions, I integrated them, brought the answers to a single style.

Chose Huawei, as there was nothing to choose from

Every day I come to work, lay out smartphones and accessories on the showcase, fill out reports. From the outside, it seems that working in a cell phone store – don’t hit a lying person, sit on a chair, wait for a buyer, and then sniff whatever you want. In fact, the same work as in a factory, if not worse. There you stamp some objects, no one stands above your soul, here it is about the same. But at the factory it seems to me that there are no endless reports, crazy buyers that eat your brain with a teaspoon and with special savagery. The part-time job in the third year of the university turned into a full-time job, I like it, the store has become a window into reality. I collect other people’s stories, characters, help people solve their problems. I cannot call myself a geek, I am a humanist to the bone.

There is a good team at our point, three people work. One person is constantly changing, the second came by accident and, like me, stayed late, we became friends. Bad stories almost never happen, there are mistakes, problems with customers, but there was no theft (in other stores this happens all the time).

Closer to the point and your question. I chose Huawei because there was nothing to choose from. At school I dreamed of an iPhone, saved money, in my first year at the institute I bought a used device, the dream came true. I walked with him for a long time, and when I got here, I could feel different devices, albeit not so as to fully use them. But I got an idea, and much better than many. Customers are too lazy to even take the phone in hand, buy it in a box and then complain that they don’t like the way it feels. For some, this is an opportunity to play someone else’s role, money does not matter, we call it “the king in the store”. The most problematic buyers spend money without thinking, and then realize that the choice was not the best. Often their family helps them with this. And then it’s my way out, I need to make sure that they are not disappointed in our store, but I can’t accept the goods from them, since everything is fine in it.

In a couple of months in the store, the Apple magic disappeared completely, for me Android is the freedom not to pay for every step. Constant sales of software for zero rubles, the phone always has everything you need, and nothing needs to be installed additionally. If you don’t try, you won’t know, here is my story.

The choice of the brand is not accidental, at first I tried a Chinese smartphone, for three kopecks a million functions, but each one works so-so or does not even work. Didn’t like it, wanted to go back to iPhone. An option turned up, a person was selling his smartphone at a low price, took a chance and bought it. The low price cost me a lot of nerves, on the second day the device was blocked and they began to extort money. I had to throw it out, deceive someone and did not want to sell it.

I urgently needed to get some kind of phone, a salary in a couple of days, many reports need to be done from the phone, photographing a shop window, layout, and so on. I did not want to take a loan, I agreed that I would take a smartphone and give the money from my salary, they made me a purchase price. So I got to know Honor, started setting up the device, the first days did not see much difference with other phones. And then two things bribed – the battery and the quality of the photos. Everything else is about the same as in many companies, but he held the battery perfectly, although it was affordable. On the day of the paycheck, we had a promotion for Huawei, the discount was cosmic, abandoned Honor and took Huawei, because he knew that it was the same company, only the devices were cooler in everything. People who come to the store almost never know this, for them these are different companies, we have a simple customer. I spent more money, but the device worked for a long time and was much cooler than anything I ever had.

I became a fan of the brand, I do not hide my affection. When all this confusion with Google began, there were two options – take the Huawei Mate 20 Pro (discount, there is Google) or wait for new devices, as you can see, I have a P40 Pro. A little expensive for me, but I bought it for 3-4 years, and then it goes. I wanted a great zoom in photos, a fast processor. Phone format for my hand. Applications? I didn’t know how everything would be, I was afraid that I would run into problems. In fact, everything turned out to be not so scary, but some moments at first made me mad. You order food for work, but geolocation does not work, there are no coordinates in the application. For us, ordering food is not an everyday story, we walk nearby to the shopping center, to the food court. It’s cheaper and tastier this way, but we order when we park, there is no time. Problems in the application, as you know, irritated inhumanly. But then gradually everything disappeared, it began to work as it should.

I have a standard set of applications, I use mail, WhatsApp, social networks, all this is on my phone: I had to download WhatsApp as a file, it was not in the AppGallery store from Huawei. Just a minute, no problem. Previously, the connection was to Gmail, now I set everything up for Yandex, I do not experience any inconvenience. The solutions for me are equivalent, and there and there Android, the same YouTube is, but how to watch it, the tenth thing, for me it is not important that there is an application from Google.

Am I suffering on Huawei? No, there is no suffering, everything works as it should. It is possible that there are some applications that are not in the store from Huawei, but you can either download them through the search (we are talking about Petal Search from Huawei. – EM), or I don’t know about them, I don’t need them …

I recommend Huawei or Honor to buyers when I understand that there will be no problems and such a phone suits them. We only have Honor in our store, most of their capabilities are enough for the eyes, people use little in their phones in principle. Not all, but many. I don’t consider myself an advanced user, but probably not a beginner either. Somewhere in the middle. And I also advise you to always turn on your head, I’ve heard enough horror stories about different companies and phones, every couple of days someone comes with such knowledge, and it’s hard to convince a person. The network does not write well about anything, if you believe everything written, then you need to live in a hut with a splinter.

Natalya Petrovna, guide and a little local historian

A bright case is hidden behind the cover-book, the contrast hits the eyes. In the hands of the model Honor, bright, but to find out the name without an inscription is almost impossible, you need to climb into the menu. Natalya Petrovna catches a glance and apologetically says: “The children gave the phone, but I bought the cover on the market, I thought there was more choice, it’s a pity to throw it away, and somehow I got used to it. And I am happy with the phone, the ringtone is loud, the screen is large and the text is made on it more, even without glasses everything is visible. We have been with him for six months, and it pleases us with a bright screen, before that the phone was smaller. When they gave it, she swore at what the light was worth, dear, and why should I. Change the battery with the old one, and that’s enough. ”

It can be seen that Natalya Petrovna likes the phone, but she pretends to be indifferent to it. I ask you to twirl the device in your hands, see what programs are on it, find some crosswords, balls and, for some reason, World of Tanks. My interlocutor does not give the impression of a player who sits for hours in a shooter, says that her grandchildren were visiting and had something of their own. But it is impossible to swear at the grandchildren, I forgave them everything in advance.

Groups of tourists come to Kaliningrad almost every day. A year ago it was calmer, after the quarantine, the area opened, and people travel in an endless stream, there were not enough days off, work almost every day. Natalya Petrovna looks about 65, keeps up cheerfully. He mostly talks on the phone, texting in messengers (and who needs SMS today? Banks and fraudsters, and who is who, you won’t figure it out!). On the previous phone, no accounts were set up, he thoughtfully says that maybe the children were doing something. She asks them to put themselves crosswords, there is a moment when you can get distracted. There are photographs of tourist places in my memory, I did not show it before, since the screen was small and dim. Now it does not show, because it invites everyone to download them in the cloud, although it does not use this word: “The illustrations are in Yandex, and I give everyone the link, copy them to WhatsApp and send them”.

Children do not come as often as we would like, but there are no problems with the phone, except for periods when the neighbor Lyudka is twisting something, then the sound will disappear, then some horoscopes come out. Lyudka is younger, but she quickly lost her status as a technically advanced friend, and she is only frustrated. The last time the sound was repaired by the driver, he pressed something, and everything appeared. Volodya has since been called exclusively “my savior”.

Natalya Petrovna spies on some things in her search, studies the Internet, uses maps, although she does not admit it. I examine the phone in front of her, so that there is no feeling that I, like Lyudka, will change something, ruin it irrevocably. The statistics show “Yandex.Maps”, a search from “Yandex” and a browser – Natalya Petrovna stoically claims that she has never done anything like that and he does it himself! Careful inquiries show that there is no association with Yandex maps and navigation: “I was watching how we could get to the castle faster, arguing with Volodya.” For her, navigation is an integral part of a modern phone, and who and how delivers all this cartography does not matter, only the result is needed.

There are a huge number of people like Natalya Petrovna in our country, it is not even necessary that they be aged, although the first association is just that. Many people do not care about any additional applications, capabilities, they need basic things (although everyone has their own understanding of this base). It is difficult to call such users unpretentious, they are just content with what they need in their everyday life. And they do not reveal their potential one hundred percent. Their right, don’t you?

Instagram as a way of life – an alternative opinion

Alena is full of life, constantly smiles and cannot sit in one place, turns around and looks at others. Look, look, this is Sasha Tsypkin, moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowered, his series is coming out now, as it turned out in the next minutes, also mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Pinch space on Patrick is very narrow, if not cramped. The local get-together, which Sasha described so well, communicates with each other, but at the same time demonstrates itself to the outside world. Alena is not a part of this party, but among her friends and girlfriends she is clearly distinguished by her craving for brands, clothes, dolce vita elements. I am examining the beautifully curled curls, on which I have obviously worked for more than one hour, and I think that even long hours of training will not give me the opportunity to stretch words like that, even the most ordinary ones. There is no show in this, in some ways it is even cute, and it seems that this is a sincere emotion.

I am thinking about whether to acquaint Alena with Sasha or not, I am afraid of an explosion of emotions and I decide that this is superfluous, it will be difficult for everyone to withstand the flow of praise in the morning. Although Sasha will certainly be pleased. I bury myself in a corner so as not to be identified.

Alena has a top-end Honor, on the whole back there is an inscription in large letters so as not to confuse the phone with some other. Why this phone? “It’s stylish, look, what an inscription, it’s like Warhol once” (he immediately switches to him: “Have you been at the exhibition at Krymsky? How did you like it? Tell me that he is cool, how did he feel his time”) … Alena is the type of girl with whom it is convenient to communicate, every five minutes you need to nod, insert a word, and this is enough for her to continue talking. I feel comfortable chatting with her if the word accurately describes the process. Rather, it is the perception of information about life and from life that goes on non-stop. It seems that Alena is twenty, but this is an appearance, we have known each other for ten years, and, therefore, she is already almost thirty, but you cannot tell from her appearance. We meet by chance in different places, as they say, we bump into each other. Either in the night she hit Noor for cocktails, then in Doctor Zhivago, where she drags another friend who has never been there and needs to “show everything and give everything to try.” Lighter in all forms.

I just have one question: why Honor and not an iPhone? Ask me who, what phone Alena has, without hesitation I would name the iPhone, one of the latest models. Without the slightest hesitation. But life turned out to be more interesting than assumptions: “Why this one? See how cool, bright and how it suits me. iPhone is boring, everyone has it. I walked for the iPhone, left the store with this phone, thought that the seller had deceived me, assured me that he was shooting at night incomparably. I didn’t deceive, look how many different photos I have ”.

There are several thousand pictures in the gallery, Alena flips through the photos without a shadow of hesitation, pictures flicker in the bathroom, in some kind of bath, painted nails, landscapes – everything is mixed, a little of everything. The feeling that she is keeping a diary of a girl in a big city, only forgets to add captions to her photographs. But I remember that on Instagram everything is about the same, a continuous stream of pictures, sometimes even without signatures.

How can Alena live without Google? Easy and calm, since it was not on the iPhone and there were no frustrations because of this. Alena does not know that, according to the advanced part of Android virtual users, she must experience inhuman suffering. I wonder how much she got used to a new system for herself, how much Android turned out to be more complicated or simpler. Here my stereotypes are destroyed, as I hear the following phrase: “I, for a minute, is a graduate engineer and I can sort out such nonsense with one hand.” For the first time I ask the question of who Alena works, I get a resounding slap in the face of my judgments about a person: by specialty in one large research institute.

We chat, explaining the reason for our meeting and what I am trying to find out what I like and what is not in Honor without Google services. Once again, Alena pleasantly surprises me, as she highlights the story from a completely different side: “Listen, but everything on the iPhone is also from Apple, somehow we live with it, and nothing. It is clear that you do not understand this, but here is exactly the same story, side view. There is no difference, all instructions on how and what to do are on the network, it’s a matter of a couple of minutes – to google and find everything you need. In Google, my phone was not blocked, look for health. People are completely lazy, they want the phone to make coffee for them, it doesn’t happen. There are no cardinal inconveniences, no suffering, I use it and I am happy. ”

I ask permission to twist the phone in my hands, I look at the installed applications, there are several dozen of them. The set is somewhat familiar – social networks, including Tinder, a couple of browsers, toys, travel applications and Sberbank (it is for payments from the phone). We chat, and it turns out that Alena is ripe for buying a smartwatch, she even chose a model for herself. The reason is simple: not to be distracted by the phone at meetings. Most of all I am interested in another question, how does Alena look at work, the image of this woman does not form in my head. Just fifteen minutes of nagging, and I was promised that the office bow will be on my phone the same day. I look at the serious girl in the photo and understand that if I came face to face with this Alena, I would not recognize her as my friend. The metamorphoses are too radical: different clothes, makeup, even a completely different look.

The fat point in our conversation is put by the phrase: “And Instagram is very important for me, I can’t find time for a psychologist, but here you immediately see who likes, who looks after you or follows your life. A cheap and modern way to let off steam is better than eating a man’s brain. ”

We started talking about the telephone, and everything turned into a philosophical conversation about life. And so with everyone, you dig a little, you show interest, and the conversation goes to some distance, until this moment, not expected.

As an afterword

We are all very different and we live our lives differently. Initially, I thought that I want to better understand how ordinary people perceive Huawei / Honor and the lack of services from Google on these devices. Professional deformation in my case literally yelled that this should become a problem for most. In fact, everything turned out to be completely different, people often simply do not pay attention to it, ask if there is such and such an application, and, having received an affirmative answer, they do not see any problem for themselves.

The idea of ​​the article was banal and simple: talk with different people, see what they use and how, what problems they face. But the very formulation of the question turned out to be incorrect, since the problem was only in my perception of the world, and not in the lives of people. Spent a couple of weeks to accumulate material, and in the end I decided to describe individual examples, carefully selected several people who seemed interesting to me (I will forgive those who communicated with me, I use your stories in other materials in one form or another) … This is not an attempt to cover the immense world, it is not at all the ultimate truth, the view of people from the outside. In my work, such a foray into the real world is good because it gives a different angle of view on questions that seem unshakable and understandable. I am sure that among your friends and acquaintances there are people who adhere to completely different views on technology, someone chooses one brand, someone else. But in terms of the problem with the lack of Google services on Huawei / Honor smartphones, the story is more far-fetched than real. And sales prove this, both brands are in short supply, and there are no problems with returns from disappointed customers, such cases are rare and are not related to services from Google. Do you think the problem is far-fetched or is it serious for you?

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