Huawei’s future is great as its new app store AppGallery comes with hundreds of popular apps for business, communication, gaming, fitness and entertainment among others.
Huawei AppGallery which has been around since 2011 in China and 2018 internationally, was a store for third-party apps for Huawei users in mainland China where Google Mobile Services are not as popular as in the west. As Huawei refocuses on its AppGallery, most of its devices have it pre-installed or as an update for the older versions. Huawei is also offering 100% revenue share to its developers as well as promoting local apps compared to US-based global big-name developers.
Just a little background, Huawei’s AppGallery was internationally launched in March 2018 and by the end of the year, it had reached over 120 billion downloads in the year and the best part is that the AppGallery is pre-installed on all new Huawei devices and is made available to all Huawei phones whenever they receive an update. To date, AppGallery reaches more than 350 million devices sold by Huawei globally.
The AppGallery is important, not only because of its growing user-base globally, but it will attract more users for Huawei locally in China and also give global users an alternative to iOS and Google Play Store hence growing the Huawei brand globally. With independence from Google, Huawei will also build its mobile ecosystem with services such as mapping, cloud services and payment and several other platforms.
To see the possibility of this being the biggest app store outside of China, Huawei is investing $1 billion to help developers port key Android apps to its AppGallery and it has also partnered with Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo among others to get the AppGallery on as many devices as possible. Big-name developers Microsoft, Amazon, Deezer, Spotify, Lufthansa, TikTok, Booking.com, Viber and Opera among others.
AppGallery is 100% compatible with Android and most of the apps don’t need additional development. Huawei AppGallery supports 78 languages, including English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, etc.
Quick Dive
Homepage
We got a review unit of Huawei Y7p from the good people at Huawei Kenya for a deep dive. We will quickly dive into the AppGallery on the Huawei Y7p then give a full hands-on review of the phone later this week. This view is from a users’ point of view and not for app developers.
The AppGallery is made of a top search section which when pressed shows the most searched apps and games, the top searches and a user’s search history.
Below the search, the section has a sliding banner shows 5 selected apps from its various categories for around 2 weeks encouraging users to click and download them for their devices.
Beneath it, we have the Games icon, Gifts icon, Campaign icon, and the Wishlist icon.
Beneath that we have the New Apps We Love listing apps most loved by users. Under here there is GBWhatsapp, Jiji Kenya, Stylish Fonts, Remote Control, Bible and many more. Under the New Apps, We Love is New Games We Love featuring games such as Asphalt, Moto Rider, Top Speed, Overkill 3, Warship and many more.
The Top-Rated Apps are listed below and include All Kenyan Live TV, iReader-Novel, Comics, and Dual Space.
Below them, we have Most Fun Games such as Rescue Cut, candy Crush and Warship Fury.
Below that we have Top Collections which shows the 20 Apps of the Year 2019 and best 20 games of the year 2019. Other than that we have a section for Most Popular Apps, Innovative Apps, You May Like, Must Haves, More Cool Apps, Editor’s Recommendations, Best This Month and Quick Apps.
Navigation Panel
The Navigation Panel on the Huawei AppGallery has the Featured Tab, Categories Tab, Top Tab, Manager Tab and the Me Tab.
The Featured Tab in the AppGallery has apps and games recommended and probably necessary for the new device user.
Categories Tab includes all the categories of apps and games in the AppGallery such as Games, Books, Cars, Education, Business, Finance, Food and Drink among others to make them easier to find.
Top Tab shows top apps and games by rankings which include Jumia, GB Whatsapp, Truecaller, TikTok, Jiji Kenya among apps and Top Speed, Moto Rider, Street Gangster, Offroad Xtreme, Commando Jungle among others among games.
Manager Tab shows the available updates, installed apps under the installation manager, installation packages and storage space left on the device or if it needs cleaning up.
Me Tab is the section for Gifts, Rewards, Reviews, Pre-orders, Wish list, Purchase history and comments among others.
New to AppGallery Guide
For those who are new to Huawei’s AppGallery we have selected some apps as a recommendation by TechMoran in the screenshot below. The apps include social networks, productivity, mapping, gaming among others. Some of the popular ones include TikTok, Pinterest, Microsoft Office, OneNote, ‘Here Maps’, Spotify, Deezer and Tidal, Huawei Health, Garmin and Fitbit, WeChat and QQ, but also Viber and Telegram among others.
Conclusion
If you were thinking life without Google is possible, you are wrong. Huawei’s AppGallery has Android apps similar to those you find in the certified Google Play Store. Those looking for a better experience can install the Amazon Appstore on their new Huawei Y7p.
