The Huawei P40 family of phones are finally here. However, with the US government still going all guns blazing against the Chinese powerhouse, you may be wondering if the new handsets have access to Google services.
Here to help we’ve deep-dived into the phones’ software to discover which Google services are on Huawei P40.
- Read our hands-on Huawei P40 Pro review
Does the Huawei P40 have Google?
The answer is no. The lack of a software license from Google means that, while the core OS is based on the open-source version of Android 10, the P40 line’s backend services and app store is made and run by Huawei.
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Power it up and instead of the Play Store you’ll be treated to AppGallery. This is Huawei’s custom app store. We haven’t had a chance to test it yet, but as it stands it, understandably, has a smaller library than Play.
At the time of publishing, it had roughly 3000 apps to choose from. Though this sounds small, the fact Huawei’s managed to get this many in such a short space of time is relatively impressive. It’s also done a solid job securing some big names, including the BBC, which has a custom news app on AppGallery.
It also has a nifty Quick App feature, that lets you run some services through Huawei’s cloud, removing the need to locally install some services to the phone.
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Google Assistant is also absent. Huawei’s replaced it with its own Celia digital assistant. Again, we haven’t tested Celia yet. Still, on paper it should offer ok smart assistant functionality, letting you ask it questions and do basic productivity tasks like setting calendar alerts and alarms using voice commands.
In certain countries, the phone will also replace Duo and Hangouts with Huawei’s own MeetTime. The app on paper offers equivalent IM and video calling services to its Google rivals. These include 1080p resolution call quality and the ability to change your background in video calls.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
