Smartphones are nothing without convenience. That has been the biggest point working against Huawei’s feature-rich P40 series thus far.
The absence of Google Mobile Services has become a big talking point for the new flagship series, but the Chinese tech giant has been doing admirable work in working around the fact that you can’t get anything directly from the Play Store.
As I mentioned in my review for the vanilla P40, although Huawei’s attempt to make up for no Google access goes quite the distance in maintaining the company’s smartphone prowess, it still requires effort. Smartphones and effort don’t work so well together anymore.
Enter a new, intelligent “Find Apps” search widget, which Huawei has now launched locally for its Australian customers. The company fashions it as a “gateway to a million apps”, which is basically a highly functional and convenient search engine to connect users to news, images, and exactly the kind of app they are looking for.
If it’s not already available on Huawei’s now signature AppGallery, the widget will find the app and direct you to the best way to download it. For example, if the desired app isn’t available via the AppGallery, but can be downloaded somewhere like APKPure, the widget will direct you there. It’ll even pull automatic updates should you want it to. Similarly if the app can just be downloaded and maintained directly from its developer, you will be taken there.
Aggregating several sources to make up for no Google Play Store is a step in the right direction, helping you pull apps if they haven’t already been transported to your phone from an older model with the reliably efficient and quick Phone Clone function.
“At Huawei, we are committed to providing new and innovative technologies for our customers,” said Managing Director of Huawei Consumer Business in Australia Larking Huang. “Now, with the Find Apps search widget, powered by Petal Search Engine, Huawei users have an easy way to find, explore and download the apps they need onto their device.”
The Find Apps widget was built in partnership with Qwant and Yandex with top hardware-based security and technology. Huawei has stated that privacy standards are unparalleled and that data privacy and security is central to the new widget.
Find Apps comes pre-installed on any new devices purchased from the latest P40 Series and is available for download via the AppGallery by existing users in Australia with a P40, P40 Pro, Mate 30 Pro and Mate Xs.
