[Updated] Play Services update fixes Google Maps issue on Huawei/Honor devices

Update (May 23):

Google has officially called the issue fixed with the public roll out of Play services latest update (v12.6.85). Here’s what one of the company employees lately said on Issue Tracker:

As of 10:00 AM (PDT) on May 21, 2018, Google Play Services version 12.6.85 was pushed to 100%, following the initial beta rollout. We believe this resolves the Google Play Services issue on all impacted Huawei devices.

Huawei is working on a longer term solution which is beneficial to its users and developers.

We apologize for this incident and the impact it may have caused. We are conducting an internal investigation of this issue and will make appropriate improvements to our systems to help prevent future recurrence. Stay tuned for an Incident Report.

Update:

We are getting conflicting reports on weather or not the update has been publicly released. It could possibly still be in beta. We’ll update the story as and when we get more information.

Original story:

An issue that has been enormously reported by Huawei/Honor users, as well as highlighted by some major tech news publications (after we brought it to light first) during the past week was Google Play Services update (v12.6.73) eerily breaking Google Maps’ integration in apps, rendering apps like Uber completely useless.

Basically, users reported that apps on their device either crashed or threw “Google Play Services are updating” message when accessing Google Maps.

While Google quickly acted upon the matter, pushing forward a beta release of Google Play Services to fix up the entire mess, what’s now coming to light is that the company has released a stable version 12.6.85 that contains the fix.

One of the Google employees recently confirmed the same on the Issue Tracker thread addressing the matter in question. Here’s their exact statement:

We believe this issue is fixed in Google Play Services version 12.6.85. If you are still encountering the problem, please ensure your device has this version installed.

It’s worth mentioning that those who installed the beta version had said there’s a waiting period of a minute or so before the “Google Play Services are updating” message goes away. Google confirmed this is indeed the case (which, according to us, makes the solution more of a workaround than a proper fix).

Anyway, here’s how they explain it:

As previously noted, there can be a short delay (usually less than one minute) between the time the OS has finished booting, and Google Play Services starts and resets the permissions. If you launch an affected app before Google Play Services has finished resetting the permissions, it may not render a map. If this happens, re-launch the app after a minute or so. Subsequent launches of the app should succeed every time.

Moving on, along with the Google Maps issue, Google confirmed the new Play Services update also resolves a known WiFi glitch plaguing Huawei devices.

Also, we are happy to report that this version of Google Play Services fixes a known WiFi issue on Huawei devices.

A quick look at the app’s Play Store listing also confirms that it was recently updated. And after receiving the latest update, users are given it a thumbs up.

Because of a bug introduced by #Google many apps including #RADYO was not working (crashing) on #Huawei devices. Google fixed this problem by releasing a new version of Google Play Services (version: 12.6.85). After updating to this file #RADYO and other…https://t.co/nuTwWm4ihl

— cahit (@cahitce) May 20, 2018

So, for all Huawei/Honor users trapped in the Google Play Services mess, the trouble ends here. Wish you a smooth user-experience. Oh, and yes, in case the update hasn’t landed for you yet, you can download the latest version from APKMirror.

Stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) to hear about all related developments as and when they occur