Huawei phones and tablets have to do without Google apps due to the US trade embargo. But in 6 simple steps you can get them back on your device thanks to a new method.
In May 2019, the Chinese manufacturer Huawei was subject to a trade embargo by the United States of America. US companies are therefore only allowed to work with the company to a limited extent. This had a major impact on Huawei’s smartphones and tablets in particular. Since then, Google apps such as Google Maps or Google Pay have no longer been pre-installed on these, and the Google Play app store is also missing.
Although almost all Android apps can be obtained from the Internet without this, many of them cannot be run on Huawei devices. The reason: Google Play is more than just an app store. With Google Play services, Google also provides programming interfaces and drivers that app developers can use in their programs. If Google Play is missing, this framework is also missing – and many apps will no longer run.
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MicroG and Aurora Store instead of GBox
- Install MicroG and Aurora Store
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Compatible devices
MicroG and Aurora Store instead of GBox
In recent years, there have been several solutions that have allowed you to get Google Play back on your Huawei phone. None of them were convincing. Either the installation required knowledge of rooting smartphones or they did not work reliably. With others – such as the virtualization solution GBox – there were security concerns because you had to share your Google login data with a largely unknown developer.
Now there is a new solution that largely solves these problems. The solution is called MicroG. This is an open source replica of Google Play services. MicroG was developed by the German software developer Marvin Wißfeld. The aim of MicroG is to provide a replica of Google services that uses as little data as possible. The development of MicroG was even partially funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
You can find MicroG on the Download the project website and then install it on your Huawei phone. It is much easier if you install the Aurora Store via the Huawei App Gallery. Then MicroG will be installed directly.
At the Aurora Store is a replica of the Google Play Store. With it you can get all the apps from Google Play on your Huawei phone. You don’t even have to register to do this, the store also allows you to use and download apps without a Google account. So you don’t necessarily have to give your login details to the developers. Another advantage over GBox: The apps are installed directly on the phone and not stored in a sandbox. This means they work faster.
Below we show you in a video or as a step-by-step guide how to get MicroG and Aurora on your Huawei phone. The instructions were created using a Huawei Pura 70 Ultra.
You can then choose whether you want to use Aurora anonymously or with your Google account. We recommend using it anonymously. If you download Google apps like Maps or Gmail, you can still log in to them later with your Google account when using them. In this case, however, you will have to share your login details with microG. However, since the developer is well-known and the software is open source, the risk is lower here.
However, there is one limitation when using Aurora: you cannot download paid apps from the store, nor can you restore purchases you have made.
Compatible devices
- Huawei Pura Smartphones
- MatePad 11.5”S Tablet
We tested the procedure outlined on a new Pura 70 Ultra ourselves. However, it should also work in the same way on Huawei’s new tablet, the MatePad 11.5”S. As soon as we receive a test device, we will try it out and verify it.
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