AppGallery, i.e. the world of mobile applications according to Huaweia

Huawei AppGallery is an application store available on Huawei smartphones, which is part of the Android overlay called EMUI.

On the list of installed programs on Huawei smartphones that use Android, you can find the icon signed AppGallery for two years. This part of the EMUI overlay is nothing more than a store through which you can download applications and games and their updates, prepared by a Chinese phone manufacturer.

Huawei's AppGallery smartphone store appeared in 2018.

Now the store is dynamically developing and is pre-installed on all smartphones of the Chinese company, which were introduced on our market in the last two years for sale. Owners of these slightly older models, which are still in use and on which AppGallery is not available, can upload them manually by downloading the APK file from the manufacturer's website.

Huawei encourages the use of its repository not only owners of its devices, but also developers. The Chinese company has high hopes for this project. Recently, because during this year's Huawei Developer Day, which took place on February 24, announced that it will allocate as much as $ 10 million for this purpose.

What can you find in the Huawei AppGallery ?

The Huaweia app store is already the third largest application repository in the world , and - despite the turmoil associated with unprecedented interference in business policy - Huawei has defended its position as the second largest smartphone manufacturer in our country. It is no wonder that just as a company depends on applications in its store, so developers want to be present in the AppGallery.

You can install and update applications loved by Poles from the repository developed by Huawei. Aliexpress, Tiktok, Allegro, Yanosik, Ipla, OLX, Blix, Healthy Shopping and Joom are popular among users from our country. Huawei customers also receive access to so-called gifts, or partners' offers. You can now get a subscription discount for Legimi and Podcast Go.

AppGallery is just the beginning

Huawei is also developing other services, such as logging in with a Huawei account instead of a Google account or location services. Another of them is the ability to transfer data from a previously used phone to a new one, including one based entirely on Huawei Mobile Services. The data cloning method is used for this.

The application called Phone Clone, which can be installed on iPhones or Android smartphones from brands other than Huawei, helps in the migration of data from the equipment used so far to the device of a Chinese company without Google services. User files, photos, videos, applications, games, messages, contacts, call history etc. are supported.

Data is transferred wirelessly, the connection is encrypted and there is no need to use the cloud.

To use the data cloning service, you must install the Phone Clone application on your current device and launch it. Secondly, you need to run the same application on the Huawei smartphone, where it is pre-installed as part of the MIUI overlay and select the New phone option in it, which will display a QR code on the screen of the new smartphone.

The camera on the phone from which the data are to be cloned should be scanned after activating the Old phone option. A list of data types will appear that can be transferred from one device to another. After selecting the appropriate items from the list, confirm the selection and wait for the application to copy them from one device to another.

Importantly, this way you can transfer to the new Huawei phone from the old applications not available in the AppGallery.

The fact that an application is not yet available in the Chinese company's store does not mean that it will not be possible to use it at all. Some of the programs, including Facebook and Messenger, can be downloaded to a smartphone from Huawei Mobile Services based in at least two ways.

One of them is the use of the above-mentioned Huawei's original application called the Phone Clone application, which will transfer applications and other data from other devices. The second is to install the application directly from the APK file downloaded from the developer's website.

Let's not forget that smartphones also have internet browsers with great capabilities.

Although not all applications are in the AppGallery and not all the missing ones can be uploaded manually - some also use the Google Maps API, where instead of a map appears a white background or the program does not start at all - but this is not the end of the world. Very often, such services have their own websites, which work the same on every phone.

From the level of websites, you can log in to your accounts for services that the creators have not yet entered into an agreement with Huawei for AppGallery. Thanks to this, you can watch YouTube videos on every smartphone, view the latest posts added by friends on Instagram, order a course with Uber, etc.

Such mobile websites can also be pinned directly to the home screen. You can use them like real mobile applications, because many modern services have prepared their websites in PWA (Progressive Web Apps) technology. At first glance, they are indistinguishable from native applications.

Huawei also argues that AppGallery is a completely secure solution.

As the company boasts, its application store has standards of protecting users' privacy and security. He got ISO 270001 and CSA STAR certification. Servers that serve customers from the European Union are not located in Asia, but only on our western border - that is, in Germany. Applications added to the store are checked. They are also given an age category.

The manufacturer is now trying very hard to develop his own services package under the Huawei Mobile Services flag. He began to solve potential problems, including those with maps in applications, by establishing strategic partnerships, including with TomTom, which in the future should help solve the problem of location and maps.

He also makes sure that all important service providers appear in his shop as soon as possible.

It is also worth remembering that Huawei is thinking not only about users, but also about developers. The company, taught by the experience of Amazon and Microsoft, certainly knows that developers themselves do not bother too much to share applications in other repositories than those from Apple and Google, and therefore reduces their commission .

In the case of paid programs, this move may translate into either better availability of applications from the premium segment in the AppGallery, or even lower prices for this type of software than before. It will certainly please people who are considering buying this brand's devices after the premiere of the Huawei P40 line of devices.

* The material was created in cooperation with Huawei

AppGallery, or the world of mobile applications according to Huaweia