TEHRAN – A group of students at the Sharif University of Technology has developed a homegrown android operating system (OS) in order to confront Google sanctions against the country, the information and communication technology minister wrote on his Instagram account on Sunday, IRNA reported.

“When I was a child, there was a grocery in our neighborhood, who sometimes added certain neighbors on his blacklist without any reason. After a while, another grocery was opened in the neighborhood, so the blacklist was not functional anymore! Poor thing! After that he disputed with his son,” Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said in a video clip published with a metaphoric caption.

“Google cannot remove the Iranian operating system. A smartphone produced by the GLX Company supported the homemade operating system,” the video says.

“The Iranian developers can release their apps without any concern from U.S. sanctions on the platform.”

Meanwhile, the managing director of Telecommunication Infrastructure Company, Hamid Fattahi, told IRNA that there are no limitations for installing foreign apps. Moreover, this is an opportunity for the Iranian application market to be developed.

In April, the Google Play removed some Iranian applications including two messaging apps called 'Hotgram' and 'Talagram'.

Hotgram and Talagram are two messaging apps produced by the Iranian company Rahkar Sarzamin Hooshmand (Smart Land Strategy) using Telegram’s open source code and servers. With 25 million users in Iran, the applications were warmly welcomed since the Telegram was banned in the country on April 30, 2018. 

Following the action, Azari Jahromi reacted to the removal, saying that the U.S. economic terrorism is also moving toward the digital economy.

The move came a few months after Apple banned Iranian apps from App Store.

The homegrown operating system is not only developed by Iran. In March 2019, the CNBC published news on Huawei that built software for smartphones and laptops in case it’s blocked from using U.S. software from Microsoft and Google.

It was reported that Google — which makes the Android operating system that Huawei uses in its handsets — has suspended the transfer of hardware, software or technical services to Huawei except what’s available via open source.

Huawei has faced intense political pressure from the U.S. which says its networking equipment could be used by the Chinese government for espionage. The company has repeatedly denied the claims.

SB/MG