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Huawei is on the search for a Google Play workaround, and the company just might have found a good start to that in a new app called AppSearch.
Huawei AppSearch: Huawei’s AppGallery extension
Huawei’s newest app does as its name suggests: it is an app search engine of sorts. It helps Huawei phone users find popular apps they want. The new app isn’t an app store. It provides a place where users can search for apps. If a user searches for PayPal, for example, he or she can download the app from either the company’s own website or from a third-party site.
The new Huawei search app (AppSuche in German) is akin to Google Play in one way. It allows users to search for apps, as Google Play’s search box allows. It is an extension of Huawei’s own AppGallery. Huawei’s app store consists of Huawei’s proprietary apps. AppSearch is for those apps that Huawei doesn’t provide. The new testing app allows users to find the apps they want.
AppSearch is in testing in Germany. It exists at the German website “zukunftsversprechen,” a phrase that means “promise of the future.” The landing page says that it is one of two apps for those who use Huawei Mobile Services.
Huawei AppSearch as legitimate Google Play Store alternative
Why is Huawei testing another mobile store app? The reason pertains to the limitations of Huawei’s own AppGallery. AppGallery has few of the most popular applications phone users have in Android.
AppGallery is Huawei’s own app store, but it doesn’t offer enough apps to keep users away from illegitimate Google Play app store downloads. If it did, Huawei would not court Google Play developers or offer huge sums of money for AppGallery app development.
In the last several months, there have been at least two methods to download Google Play apps and services illegally. The first bootleg method is the LZPlay app from Lzplay.net. This app downloads six Google Play apps onto phones but bears a huge permissions list along with it. Finally, it grants remote phone access to an unknown owner in mainland China.
The second method, Chat Partner (first announced by Technobaboy), installs Google Play on any phone but requires restoring from a backup image of a phone with Google Mobile Services (GMS).
Both invalid workarounds don’t accomplish anything. Whether or not Chat Partner is banned in the future, it is still an illegitimate workaround and won’t work with certified apps such as Netflix, for example.
AppSearch grows out of Huawei Ban
AppSearch is a result of the Huawei Ban in the US. In May 2019, Huawei was placed on the US Entity List, banned from doing business in the States. Google revoked Huawei’s Android license a few days after Trump’s official Ban declaration.
As a result, Google is unable to do business with Huawei — and Huawei cannot use Google Play apps and services. The new app in testing is the Chinese OEM’s way of moving forward in the face of its Android license revocation.
Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo are also teaming up to challenge Google Play store dominance in Android.