Huawei Mobile Services

Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) is a collection of proprietary services and application programming interfaces (APIs) developed by Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Its hub known as HMS Core serves as a toolkit for app development on Huawei devices. HMS is typically installed on Huawei devices running the HarmonyOS operating system, and on its earlier devices running the Android operating system including devices already distributed with Google Mobile Services.[1]

HMS consists of seven key services and the HMS Core. The key services are Huawei ID, Cloud, AppGallery, Themes, Huawei Video, Browser, and Assistant. Huawei Quick Apps is the alternative to Google Instant Apps.[2]

By January 2020, over 50,000 apps had been integrated with HMS Core.[3] Its rival, Google Mobile Services has 3 million apps on Google's Play Store.[4] The AppGallery claimed 180 billion downloads in 2019.[3]

In March 2020, HMS was used by 650 million monthly active users across 170 countries.[5]

A Chinese phone manufacturer, LeTV, hosted a smartphone business communication meeting in Beijing on September 27, 2021, to demonstrate its phone, the LeTV S1. This was the first smartphone from a third-party manufacturer to include Huawei Mobile Services (HMS).[6]

HMS on Android and HarmonyOS

Huawei Mobile Services on Android goes all the way back to August 2016 as Huawei ID services for phones, basic functionalities for Huawei P9 series.[7]

However, in May 2019 proved to be a significant change to HMS when Google was prohibited from working with Huawei on any new devices.[8] This also included bundling Google's Apps, including Gmail, Maps and YouTube.[9]

Any new Huawei devices launched after 16 May 2019 were unable to receive updates from Google services and would be considered 'uncertified' meaning Huawei's only solution at the time was to turn HMS into a genuine competitor to Google and incentivize app developers to utilize the platform.[10][11]

Huawei officially launched Huawei Mobile Services in China on December 24, 2019, as a beta.[12] Huawei expanded Huawei Mobile Services in Europe in February 2020 and other markets in Asia, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, Canada, Mexico followed outside banned US market.[13]

HMS is available on the Honor 9X Pro, View 30 Pro, Huawei Mate XS. HMS is also available, alongside GMS, on many other Huawei models launched before the ban.[11]

Huawei promised developers it would take, “less than 10 minutes", to port their app over to HMS - to illustrate the ease of portability between Google's Play Store and the HMS AppGallery.[11]

On January 15, 2020, HMS Core 4.0 (Huawei Mobile Services Core 4.0) was officially launched. Huawei announced that at this time, there were already 1.3 million developers and 55,000 applications on board.[14] The next day, Huawei held a developer day event in London and invested £20 million to encourage developers in the United Kingdom and Ireland to use HMS.

On July 15, 2021, Huawei expanded HMS with HarmonyOS support with HMS Core 6.0 for app development with native HAP based apps in all types of devices from smartphones, tablets, smart screens, smartwatches, and car machines. Including various third-party development frameworks, such as React Native, Cordova, etc.[15]

On May 13, 2022, it has been reported that Huawei Mobile Services will fully support open source version of HarmonyOS, OpenHarmony by the end of 2022[16]

HMS Core

HMS Core is a hub for Huawei Mobile Services and serves as a toolkit for app development on Huawei devices. The core comprises Development, Growth and Monetizing[17] and was created as a replacement for Google Mobile Services (GMS) Core.[18] HMS core services were available in more than 55,000 apps in June 2020; HMS Core 5.0 debuted in September 2020.[19]

HMS Core 6.0 was launched in June 2021 with extended support for Huawei's cloud services.[20] In June 2021, the number of registered developers within the HMS ecosystem was 4 million, and the number of apps integrated with the HMS Core had reached 134,000.[20]

As of July 2022, registered developers within HMS ecosystem had grown to 5 million, and the number of apps integrated with the HMS Core reached 203,000.[21] The number of apps had grown to 220,000 by 30 September 2022.[22]

AppGallery
Main article: Huawei AppGallery

The AppGallery has a key rival, Google's Play Store on Android. The AppGallery is available in 170 countries, across 78 languages.[23]

Reception

The reception of HMS is mixed, with the majority of discussion based around the key Google/Android apps which are not yet present on the AppGallery and whether or not this presents a significant problem to users.[11][24] The open development of HMS Core has been regarded by some as benefiting the Android project as a whole, "If Huawei continues to invest in a holistically open approach ... the result could be that we could all end up a bit less beholden to Google".[25]

References
  1. "Introduction to HMS Core (Huawei Mobile Services) | HUAWEI Support Egypt". consumer.huawei.com. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
  2. "Huawei Quick Apps is Huawei's alternative to Google Instant Apps". XDA Developers. 2020-01-14.
  3. "Huawei invites app developers to board the HMS Core to grab their pieces of eight". www.theregister.com. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
  4. "Huawei HMS has about 45,000 Apps - a LONG way from Google's GMS -". Gizchina.com. 2019-12-25. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
  5. Mishra, Yash (2020-07-07). "HMS Core 5.0 launched for the global developers, comes with 7 new kits and services". Huawei Central. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  6. Li, Deng (28 September 2021). "A third party phone makes its 'return' with Huawei Mobile Services". huaweicentral.com.
  7. "Huawei Mobile Services (HMS Core) By Huawei Internet Services". APKMirror. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  8. Sottek, T. C. (2019-05-19). "Google pulls Huawei's Android license, forcing it to use open source version". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  9. "Answering your questions on Huawei devices and Google services. - Android Community". support.google.com. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  10. Welch, Chris (2020-02-21). "Google addresses Huawei ban and warns customers not to sideload apps like Gmail and YouTube". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  11. "What is HMS? All you need to know about Huawei's new mobile ecosystem". Android Authority. 2020-03-01. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  12. "Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) released in China to boost app ecosystem". www.gizmochina.com. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
  13. Artashyan, Argam. "HUAWEI TO LAUNCH HUAWEI MOBILE SERVICE IN EUROPE THROUGH HONOR V30". Gizchina. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  14. "Huawei has globally released HMS Core 4.0". Huawei. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  15. Sarkar, Amy. "HMS Core 6.0 launched with HarmonyOS support, new media, 3D modeling, and other kits". Huawei Central. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
  16. Sarkar, Amy. "Huawei Mobile Service will support OpenHarmony by the end of this year". Huawei Central. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  17. Junior, John H. (2020-02-25). "Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) Core: Replacement of Google's developer libraries, here's everything you need to know". Huawei Central. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  18. "HMS Core on Android is Huawei's alternative to Google Play Services". xda-developers. 2019-11-05. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  19. "HMS Core 5.0 Debuted on HDC, Opening Up More Capabilities". xda-developers. 2020-09-13. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  20. "Huawei's HarmonyOS already has 134,000 apps, over 4 million developers have signed on". GSMArena.com. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  21. Amit (2022-07-27). "HMS ecosystem: 5.4 million developers, 203,000 HMS Core Apps". Huawei Update. Retrieved 2022-08-29.
  22. Huawei. "HMS Core: Create Outstanding Apps and Elevate User Experience". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
  23. Pocket-lint (2020-05-18). "What apps can you actually get on Huawei's App Gallery?". Pocket-lint. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  24. Perlow, Jason. "Huawei P40 Pro: Android phone without Google? No problem!". ZDNet. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  25. Kronfli, Basil (2020-02-26). "Huawei's plan to escape Google could fix Android for everyone". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
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