Huawei Working On Its Own App Store; Roping In Play Store Developers

Huawei seems to be gearing up to come back stronger after the US government banned its operations in the country. Huawei is roping in Play Store developers to bring their apps to the company's AppGallery, reports XDA-Developers.

To promote the new venture, Huawei is touting to have shipped over 350 million devices over the last year and all have direct access to AppGallery. Moreover, Huawei is also inviting the developers to join the company's community without any charges.

Below is a screenshot of an email sent one of the developers:

XDA notes that third-party app stores are known to approach developers very often. So if the future of Play Services on Huawei devices is not so bright, it makes sense for the company to get some of the popular apps on its platform beforehand. However, there's a chance that not all popular apps would make it to Huawei AppGallery.

Besides, the company has assured its consumers that major apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger will continue to work on its devices, reports Android Authority. On May 21, the Trump Administration granted Huawei and its partners a temporary license for 90 days.

"We are reviewing the Commerce Department's final rule and the more recently issued temporary general license and [are] taking steps to ensure compliance," said Facebook in a statement. This doesn't affect the phones already in the market.

The company will soon be releasing its own operating system in August or September this year, reports Chinese newspaper Global Times. The operating system is said to come under the 'Oak OS' moniker.

There's a chance that Huawei's OS will "have more bugs in it than the Google one, and so could put Huawei phones more at risk of being hacked, not least by China."

The company has been under severe scrutiny by the US government and has been banned by several companies in the country. However, Huawei believes it could still come back stronger and keep selling products in other major markets.