Last year, U.S President Donald Trump prohibited US companies from trading with Huawei and this meant that the Chinese tech giant couldn’t access Google apps and services.
Google was barred from working with Huawei on new device models or providing Google’s apps including Gmail, Maps, YouTube, the Play Store and others for preload or download on these devices.
Huawei was left to upgrade the AppGallery, their alternative to the Google Play Store and which became the default app store for its newer devices including the Huawei Mate 30 series, the recently launched Huawei Y7p and the Huawei P40 series which will be launched in Kenya very soon.
Apps not available on the AppGallery could be downloaded from the third-party app stores or run apps through the browser and create links for them on the home screen such as YouTube.
Sideloaded Google apps could run errors as they require access to Google mobile services and is the reason Google Maps will run into hitches when using it.
There is a Google Maps alternative on the Huawei AppGallery. HERE WeGo just became available for Huawei devices.
The mapping app that was on Windows-powered apps when Nokia owned HERE will now become a must-have utility app for Huawei users.
The app still has excellent functionalities that give Google Maps a run for its money including the ability to retain all the same navigation features offline as it does online.
