Six months ago, a “battle” took place between the US government and Huawei, which resulted in a ban on cooperation with the Chinese giant for all American companies.
Representatives of Huawei withstood the blow with honor, did not respond to sanctions with sanctions, and continued to work. As a result, just a few months later the presentation of the unusual new flagship Huawei Mate 30 Pro took place.
The HarmonyOS prepared by the Chinese has not yet been useful: the smartphone runs the Android operating system, but everything is sad with services from Google.
Now let’s figure out what a smartphone can do without Google Play and proprietary Android applications.
What Android and shell are on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro?
The HarmonyOS system being developed by the Chinese is not yet ready for the final release; the company did not rack its brains and used the opensource version of Android. The ban applies only to commercial modifications of Google's OS.
The developers further packaged the system into the proprietary EMUI shell, which made it possible to hide most of the shortcomings of “naked” Android 10.
As practice shows, a clean system without unnecessary junk and unnecessary services works better and is more popular with advanced users. However, it’s not only about third-party applications, but also about support for services from Google, without which it’s difficult to imagine a modern smartphone.
Testing capabilities via AppGallery Connect
Problems begin when using different libraries on two types of Android devices. At Surf, we use various services to work with push notifications, analytics, dynamic or deep links, and performance monitoring. Therefore, when they started working with Huawei without Google services, they were worried how much the work of QA would change: would it be possible to test push notifications and dynamic links in the usual rhythm or would they have to adapt to a completely new process? Fortunately, the process itself does not change much. But there are some things you need to know before you jump into non-Google devices.
Huawei without Google services does not have access to tools that work with Google, such as Firebase. Services for testing and running a mobile application need to be configured through AppGallery (fortunately, AppGallery Connect has basic capabilities out of the box) or other available tools. And perhaps come up with your own solutions.
Below are the basic AppGallery Connect tools that allow you to easily set up basic processes for working with push notifications, analytics, remote configuration and other tools for ease of testing and support.
Analytics
When testing analytics, it is useful to view events in real time - this helps ensure the quality of the implementation of sending events in a mobile application. You can check analytics in AppGallery Connect in real time, for example, using “App Debug” (similar to DebugView in Firebase).
“App Debugging” allows you to view events coming from the MP and their parameters in real time. To connect your device to Application Debugging in AppGallery Connect, you need to connect the device to your computer and run the command in the terminal:
adb shell setprop debug.huawei.hms.analytics.app
To disable the device from debugging, run the command:
adb shell setprop debug.huawei.hms.analytics.app .none.
To find it faster, you can use the adb command:
adb shell pm list packages
General analytics collection in AppGallery Connect is also available. It's called "Live View" (similar to Events in Firebase)
“Real-Time Overview” collects all MP events in one place. You can build graphs based on selected criteria, activate filters, and generally conduct analysis based on the mobile application.
Remote setup and parameters
“Remote Configuration” allows you to manage various parameters for the application, and, if necessary, access AppGallery Connect directly from MP to work with them (similar to RemoteConfig in Firebase).
Push notifications
When working with push notifications, Surf uses different tools: Flocktory, Mindbox, Firebase and others. Not all tools can yet work with Android without Google support, but there is a basic opportunity to connect push notifications for Huawei: this is their proprietary implementation through AppGallery Connect. Push notifications are configured in PushKit.
It is important to note that the backend pusher must be able to interact with AppGallery PushKit. Otherwise, push notifications will have to be sent manually from AppGallery Connect.
App Linking
App Linking is a service for working with dynamic links. Based on deep links, App Linking gives users access to the desired content directly on web pages and mobile applications: this increases user conversion (similar to Dynamic Links in Firebase).
Dynamic Links vs Deep Links
Dynamic links are smart URLs that let you send existing and potential users anywhere in an iOS or Android app. Dynamic links easily take users from any URL to in-app content. If the user has not installed the application on the device, they will see the content when they install it.
Deep Links are a type of local link: they direct users directly to the application - and that's it. Accordingly, if the application is not installed, working with deep links is impossible.
In simple words, dynamic links are links that can redirect the user from anywhere directly to the application or store if it is not installed (and after installation, to the application). Deep links are links that are tied to a specific screen within the application and work locally within the MP.
At the moment, when working with AppGallery Connect, there is no way to create custom dynamic links: for example, which would be the same for both types of Android devices (with and without Google support). But with deep links everything is fine.
Crash
To catch bugs that are invisible at first glance, it is worth monitoring crash analytics even on debug versions. This is necessary when the application is potentially being developed for a large audience and the release is close - not to mention the situation when the MP is already available in the store and many people use it.
It was important for us that such a tool would be available for Huawei without Google services. Crash is a plugin that allows you to track and analyze bugs, crashes and errors in the application (similar to Crashlytics in Firebase).
APM
To ensure the quality of client-server interaction, it is convenient to use a tool that would help analyze responses from the server and the rendering of screens and elements in the application. In AppGallery Connect, such a tool is APM. This is a service that helps you find and fix application performance issues and thus improve the user experience (similar to Performance in Firebase).
Of course, these are not all the necessary services that can be found in mobile applications, but they are basic. It’s always nice to understand that you don’t come to an “empty field”: there is something to work with and you can make the application better and more accessible to all users.
What services are there on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro?
Instead of Google Mobile Services, which are not available for opensource versions of Android, the Chinese launched their own Huawei Mobile Services . More than 40,000 applications have already been integrated with the service.
The company has developed its own browser, video and music players, file viewer, personal user assistant and other applications.
All this was launched simultaneously with the announcement of new smartphones for users around the world without regional restrictions.
Two streaming services HUAWEI Music and HUAWEI Video were launched. The first announced several million music libraries, popular songs and channels with audiobooks at the time of launch. At the start it will work in 70 countries.
The HUAWEI Video video service is filled with content from Sony, Disney, Youku, Mango TV, HUACE FILM&TV and other rights holders. Now access is available to users in China, Spain and Italy. They plan to actively expand the geography of HUAWEI Video.
HUAWEI Reader (a kind of analogue of Apple News+) is available exclusively for Chinese users. The service provides access to more than a million books and publications of different genres and directions. The developers intend to enter the global market and become an international digital reading platform.
There is an alternative: MicroG
There is an alternative to Google Play Services: a project called microG. It is designed to emulate all Google Play services, but is completely open source.
It consists of five key components designed to replace the core tools found in Play Services. This should theoretically allow apps that would normally require Play Services to work, such as Maps or Gmail. But here's the thing: microG is only compatible with ROMs that support signature forgery... and Lineage OS is not one of them. As a result, microG has its own branch of Lineage called LineageOS for microG.
Of course, this also defeats the whole purpose of the "Google-free Android" project, but it's an alternative if you want to live Google-free but still rely on access to one or two specific apps.
So, using Android without Google? Probably no. But if you want to get out of the Google ecosystem, aren't a big Apple fan, and don't mind downloading a custom ROM, it's definitely possible. If you don't need any Google services, that's even better.
Does Huawei Mate 30 Pro have Google App Store?
Another loss is Google's app store. At the moment there are about 2 million applications .
Everyone knows that worthwhile games and programs will take up at most a couple of desktops on the device, but many are simply not ready to give up their usual email clients, instant messengers, task lists or social networking clients. You will miss your favorite mobile games and time killers.
Moreover, you can’t even install APK files ; this requires special rights. Fortunately, inoperative versions of the necessary services are on the device; they just need to be updated to working versions, but more on that later.
The place of the Google Play store in new Chinese smartphones has been taken by Huawei’s own application store. Company representatives allocated $1 billion to encourage developers to quickly fill the store with useful programs and games.
Already now you can find a meager set of programs, mainly from Chinese manufacturers, we hope that the situation will soon improve for the better.
What is AppGallery, AppGallery Connect and why Huawei - without Google support
Applications for iOS and Android platforms can be found in the official AppStore and Google Play stores. This is where we go first when we want to install a new mobile application on our phone.
Since 2022, another mobile application store has appeared all over the world (and in China even earlier) - AppGallery, and with it AppGallery Connect.
AppGallery is a package manager and application distribution platform developed by Huawei for the Android operating system. AppGallery Connect is a universal platform to support the entire application lifecycle: development, distribution, management, testing and analysis.
AppGallery was followed by the release of Huawei-based devices: since 2019, they are basically unable to work with Google services, so working with Android has become more difficult. It was necessary to quickly get involved and figure out how to change the testing processes of the platform.
It would seem, why change processes and adapt to another store? How many bugs can be added to the existing ones? Is it worth spending time and money? We have two arguments.
Firstly, when developing an application, the author focuses not only on the quality of the software, but also on the quality of the product. If the product is available to the majority of potential customers, this indicates a responsible approach to the application. It seems to us that it is possible and necessary to work with AppGallery, because the user is an important link in software development.
Secondly, AppGallery has a significant number of users. The store appeared in 2022, by October 2022 the application is available in 170 countries, the number of unique users is 700 million people. According to statistics, the monthly audience is 490 million active users.
At the same time, only 96,000 applications were written for Huawei. For comparison, there are 2.9 million applications in the Play Store: this means that more than two and a half million applications are not in the AppGallery.
AppGallery does not have, for example, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. They, of course, can be downloaded and installed manually without restrictions: found individually in the browser or through some aggregator. Also, services have appeared on the network with which you can download the most popular applications. But not every user will want to perform additional manipulations.
How to install Google services on Huawei Mate 30 Pro
Within a couple of days after the release of the smartphone, a fairly simple and convenient way to add Google services to the operating system appeared. This is done as follows:
Attention! You perform all actions described in these instructions at your own peril and risk.
1. In a standard browser on your smartphone, go to the site lzplay.net
2. Click the blue button to download the installation package.
3. Run the downloaded file and confirm the installation of all components.
4. Launch the Google application store and log in with your account. If you cannot log in, reboot your smartphone.
5. The installed Chinese application can be removed. First, do not forget to take away full rights from him along the path Settings - Security - Additional settings - Device administrators.
After successful authorization, you will receive functional services, just like on Android smartphones from other manufacturers. All familiar applications, navigation, YouTube, synchronization of mail and contacts will work. Even the Google Pay service with contactless payment is being launched.
Features of testing an Android platform with Huawei support without Google services
At first, when working with Huawei devices without Google services, we spent a lot of time analyzing and building processes. Now everything is fine.
In general, the following problems and solutions can be identified.
Sharing assemblies
On projects, we often fetch assemblies through Firebase, or directly download .apk from Jenkins, or build manually from Android Studio. There are no problems with downloading or manually installing .apk for Huawei without Google services. There are also no problems with App Tester, the Firebase application for sharing assemblies. You won’t be able to use the application directly, but you will be able to use invite from your email to your browser to download the assembly.
Life hack: save a page from your browser to your phone’s desktop and never worry.
Devices
Of course, testing requires devices without Google services.
- If the project is planned to be adapted for AppGallery, you can send an application to Huawei. They will send devices for testing. True, the final word is always up to Huawei itself: sending a request does not guarantee anything. But the option is nice.
- A good option is to use a device farm. Of course, this will not make up for the complete work with a real device, but it can help in some cases.
You can work through the App Gallery device farm.
- You can install HMS Toolkit in Android Studio and work with Huawei without Google services directly from the IDE.
What to pay attention to
It is worth noting important points that will later help you avoid problems or think through ways to solve them in advance.
1. Push notifications . On Huawei without Google services, push notifications implemented on the backend via Firebase (and this happens often now) will not work. Such devices have their own hms token, and a special implementation is needed to work with them.
2. Dynamic links . The AppGallery Connect tool does not support custom dynamic links format, so you cannot set up a unified link for both types of Android device configurations. Solution: use deep links or another linking tool that works without Google Services.
3. Libraries with Google services. There will be differences in implementation and a potential accumulation of bugs in the logic if the project uses libraries with Google services. For Huawei, they will have to be replaced with other frameworks or if-branches. Then you will need to test both types of devices more thoroughly.
- Google Pay . On Android without Google services, you may encounter the “Payment is not available because it requires access to Google services that your device does not support” window. A similar error can be encountered when launching other applications that are not intended for Huawei without Google.
- Google maps . Working with Google maps may contain problems with clustering, searching, drawing the current location, and so on.
- Google account. Authorization through a Google account on Huawei without Google support is not available. But implementing authorization and registration through a Huawei account would be helpful.
- The shops. If a mobile application can send the user to the store (for evaluation, for example), then you need to check that Android without Google Services sends to the App Gallery, and Android with Google support sends to Google Play. If the device supports both configurations, it would be great if the user could choose between stores.
4. Google-enabled services. For Huawei without Google, you will have to find analogues or develop them yourself. The good thing is that the important basic tools, as mentioned above, are available in AppGallery Connect out of the box.
For example, on Android devices, you can open links from an app in three different ways:
- WebView
- CustomTabs (developed by Google),
- browser.
For Huawei without Google support, only two methods are available by default or additional manual development.
Which smartphones don't have Google - list
It should be understood that the revocation of Google's license does not mean that all devices of the Chinese company have lost Google support. Moreover, it is not the smartphones themselves that are blocked, but their platforms. That is, processors. For example, last year's Huawei P Smart Z is based on the relatively old Kirin 710 chipset. It supports Google services, which means they will function smoothly on smartphones with a similar processor.
It is also worth noting that Huawei has been trying for a long time to establish contact with Google to renew the license. Therefore, Huawei released smartphones on old processors in 2022. But in 2022 the situation has changed dramatically. It became obvious that Google would not provide a license, and Huawei had to find workarounds.
All 2022 devices now ship without Google services. And these are the following smartphones:
Whether you can refuse the presented applications is a big question. Be that as it may, it cannot be said that there is an alternative way to download the missing programs. We will tell you more about the method of downloading applications that are not in AppGallery below.
