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The Huawei Wallet Android app appeared on the Google Play Store, suggesting the Chinese phone maker is preparing to expand the availability of its mobile payments solution going forward. The app is approximately 52MB in size and requires a permission to make and manage phone calls. While that access is likely required for some sort of verification, Huawei doesn’t clarify on the matter. Huawei Wallet also cannot work without the latest version of the Huawei Mobile Services package which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store as well. The framework is 64MB in size and doesn’t appear to be as crucial to Huawei Wallet itself as much as the Huawei ID service relies on it, with the same platform being used for logging into the payments app.
While Huawei Wallet is clearly labeled as being designed for Huawei-made smartphones, the Shenzhen-based original equipment manufacturer doesn’t appear to have set any device limits on it as the Google Play Store allows the app to be installed on devices such as the Galaxy S9 Plus and Galaxy S7 Edge, as seen in the image above. At its core, the solution appears to be a rebranded version of Huawei Pay which already made its way out of China earlier this year, having debuted in Russia this January. Huawei also applied for a related trademark in the United States but the chances of its service becoming available stateside are presently non-existent, with the company not even managing to strike a smartphone retail agreement with AT&T due to an intervention from Washington which opted to block its commercial ambitions in the country due to spying concerns, citing its close ties to Beijing.
Huawei may be preparing to announce a wider availability of its mobile payments platform simultaneously with the launch of its latest smartphone offerings which are scheduled to be unveiled on March 27 in the form of the P20, P20 Lite, and the P20 Pro. The company’s new handset series is expected to start retailing on a global level by mid-spring.
