Just recently I discussed the new Honor and Huawei phones, which are now being sold without Google Play. In a video I showed the amount of popular apps which just aren’t available. However, a few people contacted me to ask, “Yeah, but it’s not that bad, is it?”

Sorry guys, but…. it is. It really is. I can’t even recommend the all-new crazy-cheap Honor 9A to you because, even at that price point, people expect their familiar and popular apps … and they’re just not there.

Without Google Play, Huawei / Honor have made their own app store, which is called the “AppGallery”..

As a test I decided to go through the Google Play (UK) “Top Free Apps” to see how many I could download to the Honor 9A or Honor 9X (or Huawei P40 or P40 Pro) with AppGallery. The apps here will be familiar to many of you and they’re amongst the most popular apps here in the UK and across the rest of Europe.

Don’t forget that, because of the Trump Trade Termination, you also don’t get the on-board YouTube, Gmail, Google Photos, Drive, Chrome, Play Movies or Play Music apps either.

With AppGallery, Huawei / Honor have tried various ways to get apps working and available.

1 – Install from within AppGallery

The first (and preferred) approach is to get the app downloadable within the AppGallery. This is what customers expect. They just want to click “Install”, sign their privacy away and then have the app on their screen. Sadly, this rarely happens, even for big apps.

2 – Side-load the APK

Their second approach is to fire you off to the website of the app in question, where you can download and then side-load (install) the Android APK yourself. An APK is an Android app installer, however the phone itself advises you not to do this due to security concerns. Users will instantly be confused by these conflicting messages.

This is also going to cause issues in the long run because, when an app is upgraded, you won’t necessarily know and – if you do find out – you’ll have to re-do this process again.

3 – Opening the “app” as a “Quick App”

We did this in our attempt to make the Huawei / Honor phones “Googley”. You basically go into the browser, go to the mobile version of the site / service in question (like Disney+ or Instagram) and then create a shortcut on the desktop to that site.

Here, Huawei / Honor call it a “Quick App” and, although there can be a lot more to it, for every “Quick App” we used, it was just the normal website for the app in question. It wasn’t an actual fully-functional app installed locally.

Just look. Here’s the NOW TV “Quick App” and the NOW TV website, as shown in a browser on the phone. There’s no difference.

Here’s the Pinterest “Quick App” and the Pinterest site as it appears on the browser. Again, it’s the same.

4 – Putting the app on a “wish list”

This is where, via your Huawei account, you make a list of apps that you’d like to see in the AppGallery. If you’re at this point, then things have just got even worse.

 

The test

Here’s the list of apps we tried to download, as taken from the most popular Google Play UK apps.

Zoom – Yes. Installs direct from AppGallery.
TikTok – Yes. Installs direct from AppGallery.
Snapchat – Yes. Installs direct from AppGallery.
Amazon Shopping– Yes. Installs direct from AppGallery.
Shpock– Yes. Installs direct from AppGallery.

WhatsApp – Sort-of. Takes you to the WhatsApp site to side-load the APK. The phone warns you against doing this.
Facebook – Sort-of. Takes you to the Facebook site to side-load the APK. The phone warns you against doing this.

eBay – No. Takes you to the eBay site where the APK isn’t available or downloadable.
Audible – No. Takes you to the Audible site where the APK isn’t available or downloadable.
Amazon Prime Video – No. Takes you to the Amazon Prime Video site where the APK isn’t available or downloadable.

Wish – No app. Instead opens a “Quick App”, which is just a full-screen browser showing the mobile version of the site.
Disney+ – No app. Instead opens a “Quick App”, which is just a full-screen browser showing the mobile version of the site.
NOW TV – No. There’s a “Quick App” but it’s just a full-screen browser showing the mobile version of the site.
Just Eat – No. There’s a “Quick App” for the UK Just Eat but it is just a browser showing the mobile version of the site.
Instagram – No. Takes you to a “Quick App” which, in reality, is just the mobile version of the site.
Deliveroo – No. There’s a “Quick App”, which is just shows as a full-screen browser showing the mobile version of the site.
Pinterest – No. There’s a “Quick App”, which is just shows as a full-screen browser showing the mobile version of the site.
Strava – No. There’s a “Quick App” but it’s just a full-screen browser showing the mobile version of the site.
Domino’s Pizza – No. There’s a “Quick App” but it’s just a full-screen browser showing the mobile version of the site.

Moonpig – No. Not available.
Sonos – No. Not available.
Netflix – No. Not available.
Spotify – No. Not available.
Facebook Messenger – No. Not available.
Microsoft Teams – No. Not available.
Uber Eats – No. Not available.
FaceApp – No. Not available.
Twitch – No. Not available.
PayPal – No. Not available.
BBC iPlayer – No. Not available.
My McDonald’s – No. Not available.
Amazon Alexa – No. Not available.
BBC Weather – No. Not available.
Met Office Weather – No. Not available.
All 4 – No. Not available.
YouTube Kids – No. Not available.
Shazam – No. Not available.
BBC Sounds – No. Not available.
Sky Go – No. Not available.
Soundcloud – No. Not available.

Worst of all, as you browse around in your Huawei browser, if you simply type in the name of an app Google will point you to Google Play to grab the application… which … you can’t do.

You also find, in the “Quick Apps”, that the sites keep advising you to download the app, even though you can’t and you think you already have. You quickly realise that “Quick Apps” are not actually apps and the sites / pages appearing in these “Quick Apps” constantly moan at you because you’re not using the real app. It’s a mess of an experience.

They’ll also tell you off for using the “browser” (even though Huawei / Honor try to tell you that this as a “Quick App”) and, again, they’ll advise you to “go to Google Play and get the app for the full experience”.

It’s so frustrating and you feel like the “odd one out” in the world of Android.

As I’ve mentioned before, Huawei and Honor have a Herculean task ahead of them. There’s the country-specific popular apps to deal with, then the side-loading APK sites which sometimes work in China but don’t work in the UK. Then there’s the fact that Google Play links are force-fed everywhere you go and … that’s just the start.

The side-loaded APK’s get big fat warnings from the phone, then once you’ve installed them there’s no real update monitoring so you could be running an app which is out of date. Who knows.

I’m sorry. I can see and appreciate what Huawei and Honor are trying to do here, but this is the “Microsoft situation” from a few years ago. This is Windows Phone. As good as the phones are, as cheap as they might be, the apps just aren’t there, and you quickly end up in a world which is confusing, contradictory and … just not something I can recommend.

But, wait… There’s another app which you can use to get apps. It’s not (confusingly) the AppGallery, no. It’s called Petal Search. Let’s give that a try.