Boutique App Experience, Designed with Users in Mind
Information flows freely across borders. Now that every facet of modern life is going digital, the concept of “digital sovereignty” has gained widespread acceptance. Government institutions are eager to enhance the wealth of information at their disposal, and individuals are concerned about safeguarding their own personal information. Many of the top mobile app platforms offer a vast selection, but few run any sort of screening or filtering — the result of a simple keyword search is a dizzying list of applicable apps, which can be disorienting at a glance, and has undermined the efforts of most developers as a majority of apps remain out of sight to users. With the diverse array of smart devices and innovative features (e.g. foldable phones) that are now accessible, adapting apps to account for the differing hardware and optimizing in-app experience accordingly have become the key battleground in the burgeoning Internet of Everything era. Having developed a wide range of smart consumer-facing electronics devices, Huawei is uniquely positioned to directly engage with users, understand what they need and what they want, and address their demands with quality apps. HUAWEI AppGallery offers boutique app experience, and adheres to the overarching “glocal” and “Security above all else” principles, selecting only quality apps and providing personalized recommendations that enrich users’ life with global trends and information, as well as locally distinctive content and services. This spares users the headache of searching futilely amidst a sea of apps for the most suitable choice. Intelligent app recommendation is partly based on the device model. Dedicated apps for stylus-equipped tablets, foldable phones and the App Multiplier feature work cohesively with devices, and bring about a more comfortable and interactive user experience. We have shared a wealth of HMS Core software and hardware capabilities (incl. AI, photography and interconnectivity) with developers, enabling them to leverage what we’ve built up in years and design apps that truly cater to user needs.
Meticulously Selected, “Glocally” Favored Apps and Content
Guided by the “glocal” strategy and “Security above all else” approach, HUAWEI AppGallery has been tailored to ensure that only premium services are accessible, encompassing globally distributed apps and locally popular content. Our cooperation with Qwant, a top EU-based privacy search engine favored by many political leaders, signals the steadfast trust bestowed on Huawei by governments and enterprises across Europe. This is to provide local start-ups with a lifeline to the vast global market, while guaranteeing secure, unique, and fair search results for individuals. Qwant prides itself in its top-notch solutions of privacy safeguards, content copyright protections and intuitive column-category layout. We’ve also engaged in co-development with Yandex, the dominant search engine in Russia, to provide local users with comprehensive search engine and digital services. We also believe in “Quality is key”, integrating AppGallery with a stringent app screening mechanism as well as an exclusive classification system that is applied on a global scale. Intelligent recommendations work seamlessly within this framework, pushing relevant apps based on the user location. There’s even a button for enabling or disabling in-app advertising. This prevents advertisers from continuously tracking user data. AppGallery supports short videos, advertorials, interactive HTML5 video advertising, and a diverse range of mediums to push content most effectively. Users can make informed decisions based on succinct but revealing information on the app’s benefits and features. The successful localization of HUAWEI Video, HUAWEI Music, HUAWEI Reader and Huawei Pay has provided further momentum in Huawei’s push to make premium digital content and services globally accessible. Globally, HUAWEI Video has secured over 140 million monthly active users (MAUs), and in-depth collaboration with Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and other prominent Hollywood studios and content partners. Locally, HUAWEI Video has benefited immensely from regional partnerships, including those with Germany’s national public television broadcaster ZDF, Spain’s video on-demand services Filmin and Rakuten TV, Russia’s online video service Megogo, H+ from the Middle East, as well as Mango TV, TVB and Dimsum Entertainment in the Asian market. Users are now free to browse a rich pool of content, which is global in scope but local in character, to enjoy immersive entertainment at any time. HUAWEI Music, aiming to enrich the lives of its listeners with the sounds they crave, has gathered tens of millions of tracks from leading music production companies including the Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music. It is now available in over 100 countries and regions around the world, with more than 160 million MAUs. HUAWEI Read has already attracted more than 50 million MAUs, and developers are accelerating the release of more multi-lingual quality content.
*Note: All MAU data is as of the end of 2019. The latest data will be unveiled in mid May.
Going Local – With End-to-End, Point-to-Point Support for Developers
Huawei currently provides localized operation support in Chinese, English and Russian, with Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese soon to follow.
The “Shining-Star” program committed 1 billion USD in comprehensive assistance for the less downloaded, under-monetized apps, as well as quality local apps in innovative development, app publication, application integration and lifecycle end-to-end operation. Huawei even offers the Developer Technical Support Engineers (DTSEs) to deliver point-to-point technical assistance.
Huawei Assistant has officially partnered with News UK, a leading British newspaper publisher, to adapt its talkSPORT, The Sun and The Times apps for Huawei’s foldable Mate Xs and other phone models. This undertaking brings Huawei Assistant’s prowess to the fore in HUAWEI Assistant’s Instant Access, SmartCare and News Feed modules, facilitating unique but intuitive user interactions.
The “Shining-Star” program is complemented by the all-new Huawei DigiX Labs initiative, where we work closely with developers to fine-tune user experience in AppGallery. The Labs focus on innovation, testing, R&D and various services, in wide-ranging technological fields such as gaming, education, child care, financial services, quick apps, AR, VR and AI.
DigiX Labs play an important role in final device commissioning, development capability testing and tool experience fine-tuning, and have so far made it to eight global cities: Dublin, Moscow, Dusseldorf, Warsaw, Mexico City, Dubai, Johannesburg and Singapore.
AppGallery Connect is a one-stop platform meticulously built for developers that spans the entire app lifecycle — encompassing ideation, development, distribution, operation and analysis — helping reduce costs and spur efficiency, while facilitating easier monetization. AppGallery Connect currently offers 45 sub-services outside of China, reaching over 1.3 million developers. HUAWEI Developer Day (HDD) events provide opportunities for both Huawei and app developers to discuss industry trends, new technologies and previous cases, so that outside developers can fully leverage the shared capabilities and services of Huawei’s consumer business.
In 2019, 45 HDDs were held in 32 countries, with tens of thousands of developers participating in-person, resulting in 163% (yoy) more developers outside of China opting to design for the AppGallery platform. In the near future, HDD will continue to expand its footprint to cover Europe, the Middle East, South Africa, and Latin America etc., to share the unique benefits of AppGallery with interested developers around the world, and to build a seamless AI life.
