Huawei wants Google apps in its store offerings desperately, so much so that the company now wants Google to submit apps to its AppGallery app store.
Huawei wants Google apps in its AppGallery store
Huawei says that Google can submit its apps to AppGallery. This is similar to how Huawei has submitted its apps to Google in years past. Google owns its own Android experience and Google Play Store. When OEMs sign with Google, they gain access to the Google Play Store. This allows their users to download apps from Google’s vast app store offering on the go at any time.
Huawei says that Google could do this without trouble. And yet, Huawei may forget that it is currently in trouble with the Federal Government. Google can’t do business with Huawei, whether it allows Huawei back into Android or places its apps in AppGallery.
Huawei’s American troubles
It’s obvious why Huawei wants Google apps. Android is the most popular operating system in the world. Even when OEMs can use Android Open Source Project (AOSP) to develop a forked Android experience, few do. The reason? Even if an OEM develops a pristine Android alternative, the lack of apps and services pronounce it dead on arrival.
Huawei is on the US Entity List. Placed there last May, President Trump ban American companies from doing business with the Shenzhen OEM and the symbol of Chinese national pride. A few days later, Google complied with its home government and revoked Huawei’s Android license. This means that Huawei no longer has access to Google Play, apps, or even Google Mobile Services (GMS). And losing access to the app store of the most advanced operating system in the world doesn’t give any OEM a sense of accomplishment.
Huawei’s roundabout Play Store attempts
Huawei is fighting its current state as an outsider to Android. It desires to work with Google again. But Huawei’s desire to work with Google has much to do with profits from the Play Store more than anything else.
In the early stages of the Trump ban, Huawei said that Google would “lose 800 million users” if it left Android. Next, Huawei started sending emails to poach Google Play Store developers to make AppGallery apps.
Huawei has created an “AppSuche” (German for AppSearch) app to help users find popular third-party apps from safe sources. This is in response to the two illegal methods to continue using Google Mobile Services (GMS), even against US regulations. Whether Huawei is behind the illegal methods, no one knows.
What Android users can know, however, is that Huawei has since been marketing its AppGallery app store as the third-largest global app store. Sure, it’s right up there with the best — as long as you forget that it’s still miles and miles behind its “closest” competitors (Google and Apple).
In the end, Huawei really just wants to make money. It says Android would suffer loss without it. Then, in the process of leaving Android, it attempts to take Play Store developers along. When that doesn’t work out, others come up with illegal methods to keep the Huawei Play Store access alive. Then, when that doesn’t work, Huawei markets its app store as one rising in popularity. For all its efforts, life outside of Google Play is a real bummer.
Perhaps this is the reason why Samsung mocked Huawei’s loss of Play Store access: because, as Huawei is finding out, it isn’t easy developing an OS from scratch.