By Naseerah Nanabhai

09:09:2020

Chinese tech giant Huawei’s app availability has taken a hit as the company’s phones can no longer have access to Google software, including the Play Store. This is a result of President Donald Trump banning American companies from doing business with Huawei – the U.S. believes Huawei had violated its sanctions against Iran.

Consequently, newer models of Huawei phones do not come with Google apps installed and cannot use Google’s official version of Android, this started with the Mate 30 and includes the P40 series.

Huawei, however, has created its own store called Huawei AppGallery. Building an app store is no walk in the park as you really need to work hard to get many app developers on board. Especially if you want to be able to offer the most essential apps. Over the last year, Huawei has been working hard to make that a reality.

The tech company is committed to make AppGallery a credible alternative to iOS and Android. AppGallery hosts popular Google alternatives such as PetalSearch and TomTom navigation. Snapchat, Telegram, and Amazon just got added to the AppGallery and WhatsApp is also officially available.

Huawei’s execs have been notably diplomatic over the loss of Google and their preference is to restore the relationship between the two organizations. But given the ban, they are also pushing hard to replace Google. “It’s plausible to have two systems in a world. And Huawei will be able to survive and take the lead even in an extremely hostile environment” reported China’s state-controlled Global Times.