Will The New Huawei Phones Work Without Google?

Most people already know the new Huawei phones will not be supported by Google Mobile services anymore, so if someone upgrades to a Huawei Mate 30 series phone, how will that affect them?

It might not be common knowledge, but Huawei actually has a Phone Clone app to help people migrate their data, contacts, photos and apps from old phones to new Huawei phones. We have an Android phone with over 30 apps installed and we do a Phone Clone transfer to see which ones would work on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro.

It’s a good mix of local apps like Carousell and AXS, to popular apps like WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. We installed the Phone Clone app on both the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and the Huawei P30 Pro and attempted to transfer all the apps across.

5 installed apps weren’t transferred over, namely MacDonald’s, Netflix, Tinder, Orange Travel and TripAdvisor. We’re quite ambivalent about the other apps, but not being able to have Netflix is definitely a big blow.

Let’s see if the apps transferred over to the new phone works. Google Chrome works just fine, and Google Maps is usable as well and provides proper directions. Google Translate isn’t affected either.

We checked Telegram and WhatsApp next, and messages all go out perfectly fine. Facebook, Instagram and TikTok all worked without any issues, and shopping apps like Zalora and Carousell are up to date with the latest deals.

There is a popup notification for Carousell stating that Google Play Services is needed for receiving push notifications, but once you exit that popup, you can use Carousell as per usual.

YouTube doesn’t work, but Spotify does. Netflix didn’t get transferred over when we did the Phone Clone so we’ll count that as an app that doesn’t work either.

Moving on to transportation apps, GoJek doesn’t work, unfortunately. But Grab comes to the rescue! The app’s map doesn’t load, but setting pick up and drop off locations for rides work, and food delivery works as well. Huawei has recently signed a deal to use TomTom’s navigation data so perhaps this might change in the near future.

We tried the DBS DigiBank SG app and we managed to log in and check our balance, so that’s great news. Apps like PropertyGuru, XE Currency, Scoot and more also work without any major problems or glitches.

After that, we tested using Phone Clone on an iPhone and the Mate 30 Pro, but the option to transfer apps never appeared. Photos and contacts are able to get transferred, but no apps. The Phone Clone app definitely works best for Android to Android.

That’s not to say that every app will always be able to be transferred. We did the Phone Clone test with other phones, and test results vary based on phone models. Even on the same phones, we experienced different results when repeating the Phone Clone process. So if your favourite apps don’t get transferred over the first time, perhaps try again or with different phones if possible.

The AppGallery is pre-installed in the Huawei Mate 30 series, which is Huawei’s very own app store. It includes 18 different categories of applications, covering games, education, lifestyle and more.

As of December 2019, there are already 1.3 million developers registered globally and over 55,000 apps integrated into Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), which is powered by an open-source version of Android. With Huawei investing US$1 billion in its global developer programme, we’re certainly expecting more apps to come.

This content is brought to you in partnership with Huawei.