How to configure a Huawei HMS smartphone, or without Google services and applications, and what differences there are compared to a classic Android smartphone are two of the questions you have asked us the most in the last period, since the Chinese house has raised the veils from the new top-of-the-range smartphones that focus everything on a photographic sector of excellence: Huawei P40, Huawei P40 Pro and the new Huawei Mate 40.
During the review we have broadly explained what changes and with what extent, today we will deepen the discussion to help you better understand the consequences and opportunities of this situation, resulting from the commercial ban imposed by the US administration against Huawei. It must be premised that the situation is constantly evolving and could change from one moment to the next, consequently it is true that today Google applications are not available on Huawei smartphones (and they cannot even be installed, but let's explain it more. forward) but at the same time this could be resolved in the coming months through two ways:
In any case, if you have chosen a Huawei smartphone with HMS, you probably did it for the quality of the products of the house, the functions and the specifications that its smartphones are equipped with. So let's go into what there is to know, starting from the first configuration.
Index:
First start, the basic configuration
Once you have unpacked your new and shiny smartphone you will find yourself with the configuration procedure that, compared to the past, has practically not undergone any changes:
At this point you will be asked if you want to import data from a previous smartphone, you can decide to:
If you want to start importing data immediately, we advise you to go to the dedicated paragraph, otherwise postpone the data recovery to a later time and continue with the configuration which is actually practically finished: after a simple tutorial on how navigation gestures work instead of the classic Home, Task Manager and Back buttons.
If you have configured an internet connection you will be asked if you want to register or configure a Huawei ID. What's this?
Where is the Google account? Here is Huawei ID
The big difference from an Android smartphone with Google services and a Huawei Android smartphone without Google services is in the initialization phase of the system's unsolicited login with a Google account. You will not therefore have to log into your Google account but this means that your contacts will not be important to you, you will not have synchronized email, calendar events and applications that you took for granted such as Google Maps, YouTube, Google Drive, etc.
This is exactly what changes but inside the system, however, services and applications have been installed that are alternatives to the BigG ecosystem. All is not lost therefore and indeed, you have just entered a new eco-system, that of Huawei.
At this point we will have initialized the Huawei smartphone but our historical data will not be present inside it, such as telephone contacts, email accounts and much more. So let's try to understand what are the pre-installed applications, what we can do with them and then how to import the data from the old smartphone.
Apps pre-installed in Huawei smartphones
Once the configuration is complete, you will be presented with the classic Android home-screen with the clock widget at the top, the various icons of the applications already installed and the possibility of scrolling them by dragging your finger from right to left. By swiping your finger from left to right, you can activate and then access the Huawei Assistant, a page containing a summary of the Huawei ID, information on your smartphone and some news based on country and geographical area.
What are the pre-installed applications on Huawei smartphones? Let's see them one by one:
Import the data from the old smartphone
At this point we can start importing data from the old smartphone and, thanks to the Android operating system itself and to some solutions developed by Huawei, this procedure is quite simple thanks to the use of the proprietary Phone Clone application.
It is an application that you find pre-installed on Huawei smartphones and is available on the Google Play Store for other Android smartphones and on the AppStore for iPhone and iPad. The complete procedure can be found explained in detail, together with some additional information, in our in-depth analysis on Phone Clone.
In summary, you just need to install this application on your old smartphone, start it on both smartphones and follow the on-screen wizard. You can thus transfer the following data:
Unfortunately, however, you will not be able to transfer the data of the various applications: to give a couple of examples, you will not transfer the WhatsApp backup in this way but only the application, which you will consequently have to re-configure, and not even the saves of your games, which however, as we will see, you can recover via the Cloud.
At this point you have restored most of the information and applications you need to your Huawei smartphone and for many, the guide could end here. Now let's see how to solve the absence of Google applications, which apps are present on the AppGallery and how to solve if your favorite apps are not present.
No Google in Huawei smartphones: what consequences?
As already mentioned, the biggest shortcoming of Huawei smartphones with HMS is the absence of Google applications and services. A gap that can be partially filled, as we will see in the following paragraphs, but which has some consequences.
No Google Play Store but there is AppGallery
The first big lack that could be felt is the absence of the Google Play Store, or the application that allows you to download and install other applications. As a replacement, Huawei has developed its own store called AppGallery.
Obviously, what makes a store of this type useful is the presence of many applications and for this reason Huawei is working hard, especially in Italy, to bring you the greatest number of applications on board. In February there were numerous new entries, in addition to our application: RaiPlay, Mediaset Play, Infinity, ComingSoon, RDS 100% Grandi Successi, RTL 102.5, R101, Virgin Radio, Radio Italia, Radio 105, Radio Monte Carlo - RMC, Radio Italy, Corriere della Sera, Corriere.it, TGcom 24, Tuttosport.com, SportMediaset, Focus, Wired, ICON, Grazia, GQ Italia, Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair Italia, Satispay, Nexi Pay, Genertel, MyFastweb, DoveConveni, Trovaprezzo, PromoQui: Flyers and Offers, Stocard, and many others.
In October 2020, numerous new entries can be counted, especially on the banking theme: Intesa, Fineco, Hype, Satispay, Banca Sella but also DANZ, Sky Go, etc.
No Google Mobiles Services, what does it mean?
The second and last lack is the absence of Google services. Each Android smartphone is in fact certified by the Californian company to approve the installation, at system level, of Google services or a set of intrinsic functions which are then recalled by the applications that need them; to give an example, let's talk about the integrated login services via Gmail account, the geolocation on the map, the backup on Google Drive.
The absence of these so-called Google Mobile Services can therefore lead to malfunctions in some applications that exploit them and that is why the Chinese company is developing its Huawei Mobile Services, to supplant them and create a new ecosystem made up of alternative apps and services.
The applications that use Google Mobile Services are obviously all Google applications, so in the end they don't work, like Gmail, Calendar, Drive, YouTube, Photos and all the others. However, other applications also need it: for example TheFork works normally on a Huawei HMS smartphone but bases the geo-location on the Google service, so it will work but to set the search location of the restaurants you will have to operate manually. In the same way, even some food delivery and home delivery applications do not work or even Car Sharing, all of these use the geo-localization service offered by Google. Even all the apps that then require you to log in with Google, 99% will not work or will work partially. All this until the developers start offering their Apps on the AppGallery and thus use the services of Huawei and no longer those of Google.
Can I install Google apps on Huawei smartphones?
The question that arises most spontaneously is whether it is possible to install Google applications and services on a Huawei smartphone with HMS. The answer is it depends.
A complete and official installation of the whole package is not possible, at least for now until Google provides an official method. There are some procedures, such as the one we showed you a few days ago, through which you can succeed in the installation by bypassing some blocks, however they are often unstable and only functional for a certain period.
The solution of the Web App
A solution to remedy the absence of Google on the smartphone is to use web apps, or Google services by opening them via browser. It's very simple:
In this way, a new icon will appear on the homescreen that will allow you to access the web version of YouTube with a tap. You can do the same procedure with Google Photos, simply by going to photos.google.com or with Google Drive by going to drive.google.com and so on.
Where and how to install the most popular applications
Although a peculiarity of smartphones is the fact that they can be customized according to our use and our needs, there are some applications that are practically used by most people. We are talking about very famous applications such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and many others. Some of these are present on AppGallery, Huawei's alternative store, others are not, but there are still solutions to be able to install them. Our personal advice is to use Petal Search, a sort of application search engine to more easily understand where to find the various apps.
Where is Petal Search located? On the home screen of your smartphone, just unlocked, in the home, just write the name of the app or your search in the box in the center.
WhatsApp & Telegram
There is no serious problem with the WhatsApp application which, although it requires Google Drive for cloud backup, works 100% on all Huawei smartphones with HMS. However, it is not present on the AppGallery so you have two ways to install it:
However, if you do not want to lose your chats, you will have to manually import the related backup and to do this we have created a dedicated guide that you can consult. The Telegram application, on the other hand, is available on the AppGallery and is 100% working.
Social app: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
Facebook and Instagram are available for free and freely from the Amazon App Store, so you just need to search and download them in this store. Alternatively, for Facebook, you can download it from the official site just like WhatsApp.
Similarly, LinkedIn, which instead you can download on APKPure, is fully functional as well as all the other applications of the Redmond house which, based on the Microsoft login, do not require Google services to work. Here I refer for example to Microsoft Edge, the Android browser that recently arrived, the Office package for Android, the Bing search engine and Microsoft News, the latter already pre-installed in the operating system.
Maps: Google Maps and alternatives
Maps are particular: there are several alternative applications but many might argue that none of these can surpass Google Maps. The good news is that the Google application works, both in map browsing mode and in navigator mode. The only limitation is the inability to link your Google account to sync your address history and preferences.
In October 2020, Huawei announced the release of Petal Maps, a complete map application, localized in Italian and with a real navigator integrated.
Alternatively, you can download and install numerous alternative applications from AppGallery such as:
Email: Gmail, Email and alternatives
The Gmail application obviously does not work by requiring a Google account to work. However, there are several alternatives to the Gmail app for Huawei smartphones, one of which is already available within the operating system and a couple that can be downloaded for free from the AppGallery.
Entertainment: Music and Movies
Let's move on to entertainment, one of the most discussed but at the same time less problematic areas.
Streaming movies, sports and TV series
Almost all streaming movie and TV series applications work fine but, since DRM also uses Google technologies, the limitation of these apps is that you cannot see content of higher quality than SD (standard quality). Net of this, let's see which apps work and what you need to know:
Carsharing, Food Delivery and purchases
The categories of applications most affected by the situation are precisely these: car sharing and food delivery, if only because they all use Google's geo-localization and maps services to show the location of a car or a delivery boy. The only applications we have managed to get to work are:
Other applications and services such as Enjoy are not working at the moment, Huawei is working to make them available as soon as possible on the AppGallery but there are no dates at the moment.
Different situation instead for those applications regarding online purchases with the presence directly on the AppGallery of Unieuro, MediaWorld, Yoox, Amazon Shopping and Aliexpress.
Banking applications, virtual accounts and payment apps
Currently, the banking applications on the AppGallery are: Relax Banking Mobile, myCartaBCC and Bancaperta. Given the sensitivity of the data, we do not recommend installing banking applications via APK, also because they potentially should not work. INPS mobile is also present.
Regarding the applications of virtual accounts, instead, the Genertel, Satispay Business apps are supported (the consumer version should arrive soon) and we have found that Revolut works (by downloading it from APKPure) while we have no info on YAP and N26.
On this topic we personally interviewed Adolfo Binni, Head of Product Engagement Huawei CBG Italy, replying as follows:
“We are very satisfied with what has been done so far on the AppGallery both locally and internationally. In just two years, Huawei AppGallery has become the third largest app store in the world, reaching 210 billion downloads in 2019, of which 1.2 billion in Europe alone, 26 million monthly active users in Europe and 400 million worldwide. . We will continue to work every day with our community of developers and partners to expand the available Apps and provide users with everything they need. As for the banking apps, some services such as Relax Banking Mobile, myCartaBCC and Bancaperta have chosen to board the AppGallery. We are working every day to enrich the store with all the main players in the sector, with whom discussions are already at an advanced stage. "
We close this paragraph with a mention of payment apps since all Huawei smartphones have the NFC chip. Of course, Google Pay is not supported and neither is Samsung Pay nor other contact-less payment services with the smartphone. This is where security comes into play and we will have to wait for the arrival, hitherto unannounced, of Huawei Pay.
Games
The situation on the games obviously is very variable, it depends on many factors, first of all the login methods allowed to save progress in the cloud game. In general, if the game allows you to log in exclusively via Google / Google Play Games account, it will be impossible to recover the save, if instead it offers different login methods you can probably restore it.
For example, SuperCell games offer multiple login methods including the SuperCell ID and this is also compatible and working on Huawei smartphones, so no problem with Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Brawl Stars, which you can download from APKPure. Similarly, even those games that offer login via Facebook allow backup recovery such as Asphalt 9 (available among other things on the AppGallery with the login option with Huawei ID).
6 applications to install: our recommendations
We have almost reached the end of our long study, the time has come to give you some tips to make the most of your new Huawei smartphone based on our experience:
Final Tips: on APKPure you can download 7 compatible Google applications: Google Earth, Snapdseed, Files, Translator, Wallpapers, Gboard (Google keyboard) and Google Maps.
In conclusion
As we have repeated many times in our reviews on Huawei HMS smartphones, the situation is very variable for two reasons: on the one hand there is the commitment of Huawei which is working with the various developers in order to bring as many applications as possible on the AppGallery, therefore the situation is constantly evolving, on the other hand it depends a lot on which applications you usually use on your smartphone.
It goes without saying that if you are very much inside the Google ecosystem and do not want to get out of it, at the moment using a Huawei smartphone is limiting, however if you are willing to accept these compromises for the undoubted quality of the products of the house, there are alternatives. To you the choice.