Ever since the US ban on China and – by extension – Huawei, the latter has clearly been investing in the development of its own apps and mobile service, HMS, in the absence Google’s Mobile Service (GMS). As to when its mobile ecosystem will be ready, The Chinese brand seems confident that it’ll be ready before the end of 2019.
According to sources, Huawei has reportedly been working closely with developers in India. In order to create apps and services that are capable of becoming full-time replacements to the ones typically found on GMS. More specifically, key apps like navigation, payments, gaming, and messaging will be ready by the end of December.
The timeline is, for lack of a better word, ambitious. Developing a new mobile ecosystem takes time, and Huawei technically only began development – along with the necessary R&D tied to it – of its HMS after the bridge to GMS was raised on them in May this year. One of the first casualties of the ongoing fight was Huawei’s Mate 30 series.
The good news is, depending on how you look at it, that Huawei isn’t cutting any corners or skimping on the initiative. During the Mate 30 series’ launch earlier this year, it said that it was investing US$1 billion (~RM4.14 billion) to entice app developers to help expand the Huawei AppGallery.
Locally, companies including Astro Awani and Malaysia Airlines have already integrated and ported their apps over to HMS. However, major apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram are still nowhere to be seen on the mobile service, despite the second app already being available for download as an APK.
(Source: Economic Times via Android Authority)
