*With Huawei P40 and P40 Pro launching worldwide to good-to-excellent reviews, we felt it was time to heavily update our guide to Huawei Mobile Services. There have been some significant changes to the app acquisition experience since this article was first posted on March 26th – in particular, refinements to the App Gallery as presented in your region and direct links to popular APKs via the App Gallery. We also added the current Phone Clone experience and things you should expect from it.
Huawei’s App Gallery is still missing a few of the top apps from Google Play Store but third-party app stores can pick up a lot of the slack. Amazon, mirroring sites and the app-maker’s own sites carry most of what you after and are as safe as Google’s own app store. This handy guide can help you get to the good stuff on Huawei Mobile Services…
Phone Clone
Users coming from Android handsets can use Huawei’s Phone Clone app to transfer data en masse from their old Andi device to their new Huawei one. Phone Clone can transfer apps, photos, videos, passwords and settings but for this article we are only interested in the apps.
Irish tech pillar Mark Kavanagh found that all of his apps made their way to his Huawei P40 Pro, including the missing Google apps listed below.
My experience was similar but only Maps made its way over from Google’s stable. I couldn’t sign into my account in the app so there seems to be no possibility of signing in to Gmail, Chrome, YouTube, Maps et al.
One pleasant surprise was the preservation of my Microsoft Launcher desktop – once set as default ‘Home’ app the screen blinked and my personal home-screen layout, (apps, icon size/shape background, weather widget, gridding etc.) was back.
For the average Android user, the Phone Clone app is easy to use. Phone Clone is also comprehensive enough that post-initialisation noodling to get your new handset just like the old one should be minimal.
Straight from Huawei App Gallery
Some of the most-used apps and services in this part of the world are already waiting for you to download in Huawei’s App Gallery:
- WhatsApp (download link)
- Amazon Shopping/App Store (download link) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
- TikTok
- EPIC Games (Fortnite)
- Microsoft Office
- Done Deal
- OfficeSuite
- WattPad
- Viber
- Tidal Hi-Fi
- Telegram
- Opera (Mini & Full)
- Deezer
- Booking.com
- Speedtest by Ookla
- Nord VPN
- Snapchat
- Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall
Since the original piece, App Gallery has added two new ‘We Love’ sections which seem to be curated, region-specific App and Games shelves. Another added new feature is a wishlist which can notify or auto-install any apps you add to the list.
As you can see, WhatsApp and Amazon Shopping apps are available through the App Gallery. The gallery offers users a direct link to the respective websites.
Unlocking Third-Party Apps
Huawei Mobile Services EMUI 10 is based on an open-source version of Android 10.0.0 so it won’t let you download apps from third-party sources by default. Out of the box, you will only be able to download apps from the App Gallery but you can unlock the ability to install third-party apps in your settings.
With this done, you’ll be able to download any APK (Android PacKage; the install file for apps) and have your phone verify the package and then install the apps.
Installing Amazon App Store using the download link above or here will give you another trustworthy portal to the biggest apps for your smartphone. Through the Amazon App Store you can find the following essential apps and a lot more:
- Facebook & Messenger
- Skype
- Microsoft Outlook
- Spotify Music
- Express VPN
- DuckDuckGo
- Prime Video
There are also hundreds of mirroring sites that carry most of the apps carried on Google Play Store. Sites like APKMirror and APKPure use an authentication key to verify the mirrored APK is the exact same* as the Play Store version.
We recommend you use the App Gallery and Amazon Store where possible as they offer a full selection of options for automatic updates but here are a few apps for which you might need to use a mirroring service.
Search APKMirror or APKPure for the latest versions of the following apps:
- Netflix
- PlayStation App
- Xbox Game Pass
*There may be cracked versions of paid apps made available on APKPure – these are hidden away from casual consumers and lack the appropriate verification; they are clearly marked as unverified. NEVER download an unverified APK.
The Few You Will Have to Work Around
*As noted above, Phone Clone will bring some or all of your Google apps over. You won’t be able to sign in so these apps will be missing some functionality (YouTube, Maps) or be completely useless (Gmail, Docs, Drive).
- Gmail accounts can be easily accessed and processed through all major email clients. Outlook and Huawei’s own Email app are better than ‘good enough’ despite lacking some of Google’s AI management features. Email is pre-installed on HMS devices and Outlook is available on App Gallery.
- Google Maps can be installed via Phone Clone but users won’t be able to sign in. This may be a problem for some people but most won’t mind having to search for places on numerous occasions. For those who want to use a mapping apps full functionality, Tom-Tom is still ‘coming soon’ so there is no official mapping and location app on the device out of the box. Until then, you have two significant players to choose from: Maps.ME or Sygic are both available on App Gallery.
- YouTube is the hardest service to truly replace out of all of the apps taken by the Trump administration’s embargo. There are a dozen almost-perfect replacements but none allow you to sign in to your own YT account. Most won’t mind but many will miss the liking, commenting and subscribing. SkyTube at least lets you import your subscriptions from YouTube and is available on App Gallery.
