Huawei comes up with a clever way for users to sideload apps missing from its phones
Huawei’s rise towards the top of the smartphone food chain was hindered massively by the restrictions the American government imposed on US-based companies. As a result, the latest Huawei phones come without Google’s Play Store and the rest of Google’s apps such as Maps, Gmail and YouTube. To compensate the loss, the Chinese tech giant developed an alternative marketplace called AppGallery.
Despite Huawei investing massive amounts of money to incentivize developers to submit their apps to AppGallery, it’s still far from having the abundance of choice that the Play Store offers. But it seems the company has found a way to have its cake and eat it too. XDADevelopers spotted an app that’s being tested on the German version of AppGallery that serves as a way to find apps that haven’t made it to the Huawei store yet.
Called AppSearch (or AppSuche in German), the app lets users search through a few popular APK repositories and install their favorite apps without much hassle. And while those that are more tech-savvy have been sideloading APKs for years, this new app makes the process as easy as possible for users that have no idea they can do that.
Here's a list of the sources AppSearch looks through:
AppSearch is a rather elegant way to circumvent the Play Store since all it’s really doing is pointing users in the right direction and leaving them to make the choice of downloading an app from a third-party website.
The app is also coming at just the right time. Huawei’s next flagship, the P40 Pro will be announced next week and likely go on sale soon after. If Huawei wants to keep its flagship phones relevant, it must find a way to ensure people won’t be sacrificing functionality by choosing its devices.
Whether the new app will be good enough to satisfy people until the AppGallery gains momentum is still unclear as it’s still in beta testing. But AppSearch seems to be a handy tool for those looking for something on the side.
- Amazon App Store
- APKMirror
- APKMonk
- APKPure
- Huawei AppGallery
- Official website of the app (if one exists)
AppSearch is a rather elegant way to circumvent the Play Store since all it’s really doing is pointing users in the right direction and leaving them to make the choice of downloading an app from a third-party website.
The app is also coming at just the right time. Huawei’s next flagship, the P40 Pro will be announced next week and likely go on sale soon after. If Huawei wants to keep its flagship phones relevant, it must find a way to ensure people won’t be sacrificing functionality by choosing its devices.
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