How To Sideload Apps On Huawei Phones | Screen Rant
Due to Huawei's row with the U.S., its more recent phones, such as the Mate 30 and P40 series, suffer in terms of the software. Sanctions have prevented these phones from shipping with Google's official version of Android and its other apps, including the Play Store. They do ship with the Huawei AppGallery instead, which has a much smaller selection. However, there is an easy solution to finding apps missing from Huawei's store — sideloading.
U.S. sanctions have restricted Huawei from using hardware and software from American companies since late 2019. As such, these newer phones come with Huawei's EMUI on top of an open-source version of Android, but the basic experience is mostly the same. Though, there is no built-in Google search due to the ban and so, by default, searches are done in Bing. Huawei says its AppGallery has more than 420 million monthly active users, but the collection of software is in the tens of thousands as opposed to the millions available in the Google Play Store. So users are bound to missing some of their favorite apps.
Thankfully, there are workarounds. One way to restore missing apps is to use Huawei Phone Clone, which will copy over apps, other files and settings from an older phone. Another option is sideloading, which basically means manually installing the Android package (APK) for a given app. While it may sound complicated, it's actually a rather simple process and Huawei actually makes it even easier. The AppGallery offers apps that essentially act as search engines for APKs and one of the more robust options is Petal Search.
Petal Search uses Qwant and Yandex search engines to scour the internet for apps, news and other content, showing results in different tabs. In many ways, it works as its own web browser, even incorporating Bing results. The apps tab will display the most relevant results and how those apps can be accessed, whether that be through the Huawei AppGallery or somewhere else online. If it's the former, it will switch to AppGallery to install it. If it's available in another app store online, the user can download the APK (or XAPK — a variation with an additional data file) from that site via Petal Search. It then installs the app. Some Google apps, such as Chrome, Maps and Translate, can be added this way. Petal Search also has a home screen widget to make finding apps easier.
Alternatively, Huawei phone owners can search for Android packages via a regular browser. It is a little more dangerous this way, as the risk of downloading malware is higher. However, there are many sites that have APK/XAPK repositories that won't come up in Petal Search results. Here, the user just downloads the file and then opens it from the downloads menu. The browser will then install it. Third-party app stores can also be installed via a browser. Some popular options, include the Amazon Appstore, APKPure and F-Droid, for those interested in open source software.
However, the Play Store will not work on these Huawei phones even if installed in this manner, as it requires core Google software to run. This is the case with a few other apps as well, both from the search giant and elsewhere. Some won't work at all while others will have some limited functionality. If they are web-based apps, users can often just access the content through the browser and can even create home screen shortcuts for those pages. Using these methods, most owners of a Google-free Huawei phone should be able to find most of their favorite apps.
Source: Huawei