SINGAPORE - A workaround to load Google apps and services on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro has been taken offline after a security researcher found that it had succeeded only because it had high-level security permissions that can reportedly be granted only by Huawei.

The app in question, LZ Play, had made the rounds on forums and tech web sites as it made the loading of Google Play Store and Google apps on the device fuss-free and quick.

But it has since been taken down after prominent Android security researcher John Wu published a report noting how LZ Play uses specialised Android permissions found only in Huawei phones, including the permission to install other apps as "system" apps.

Such permissions can reportedly be signed with a special digital certificate from Huawei.

Mr Wu is also the creator of Magisk, a popular open source project that allows users to modify an Android device without using any other device such as a PC.

Even if one had already downloaded LZ Play on the Mate 30 Pro before the website went offline, the app no longer works.

When contacted, Huawei said: "Huawei's latest Mate 30 series is not pre-installed with GMS (Google Mobile Services), and Huawei has no involvement with www.lzplay.net."

Just last week, Mate 30 phones that installed Google apps via LZPlay had passed SafetyNet tests, which are tests to check if a device is secure and not rooted.

Rooting is a process that allows a user to modify software code on Android devices that a manufacturer would not normally allow.

But the phones reportedly no longer pass the test.

Huawei is not allowed to have any Google apps pre-loaded on their new devices, such as the Mate 30, due to the ongoing US-China trade war, which bans American firms from doing business with the Chinese tech giant.

That means that users would not have popular apps such as YouTube, Google Maps and Gmail installed on their Mate 30 phones, and neither will they have access to the Google Play Store.