Huawei may be blocked from using Google’s Android operating system and all the bells and whistles which go with it but that doesn’t mean the company it is waiting around with the hope the ban will end.
Earlier this year, the company announced a £20 million fund to expand its own app store, named Huawei AppGallery, to encourage developers to get on board with its new system. And it’s starting to pick up.
Swedish media-tech company Squid App has announced it will become the chosen news provider for Huawei smartphones across Europe. In the same way that Samsung has Upday and Apple has Apple News, Squid will be providing a recommended feed of news to the Huawei Browser and via the phone’s Assistant screen, which can be reached when swiping to the right on a Huawei phone.
Speaking about the announcement, CEO and founder of the Stockholm-based start-up, Johan Othelius, said: “We are very excited that Huawei has chosen us as a partner to provide their smartphone users with the most interesting news content. Our goal is to inspire users to read more quality journalism and at the same time help publishers gain more traffic and revenues.”
The app will serve up news from a variety of sources, including the Evening Standard. This content will be provided in 29 languages across 43 countries in Europe.
That’s the Google News-equivalent sorted for Huawei’s own app store then. The Chinese tech giant has also lined up an alternative to Google Maps, in the form of TomTom. According to a Reuters report, Huawei is going to build its own apps with TomTom’s maps, traffic information and navigation tools.
At the launch of the company’s new folding smartphone, the Mate Xs, this week, Huawei said it was actively curating apps around the world to build out its AppGallery ecosystem. Already, it has 600 million mobile active users in more than 170 countries, due to the number of Huawei phones that are in use around the world.
Speaking about the new app strategy, Huawei’s head of consumer, Richard Yu, said: “Moving forward, we will continue expanding our app ecosystem in the Huawei AppGallery with hopes to not only create a secure and reliable platform but also to provide consumers with more choice. The continued success of this thriving ecosystem will remain one of our highest priorities.”
