Huawei AppGallery Publishing and HMS Core Guide

Why Publish on Huawei AppGallery?

Huawei AppGallery can be relevant when the target audience uses Huawei devices or when the product needs AppGallery-specific distribution and HMS capabilities. Validate the countries, device base, category eligibility, and required service migration before funding the release.

• Device fit — Measure the target audience's Huawei-device share by country
• China distribution — Treat mainland-China release, licensing, content, hosting, and compliance as a separate workstream
• HMS dependency — Inventory every Google service and define an HMS replacement, abstraction, or product decision
• Account terms — Confirm current registration, verification, tax, and payment requirements
• Commercial terms — Confirm the current AppGallery agreement, category, market, and promotion program before modeling net revenue

HMS Core vs Google Mobile Services

An AppGallery build may run on devices or markets where Google Mobile Services are unavailable. Inventory every GMS dependency and decide whether the Huawei package needs an HMS integration, a store-neutral abstraction, or an explicit unsupported state.

Candidate HMS Capabilities to Evaluate

• Maps and location: compare Map Kit behavior, data terms, coverage, and existing Google Maps features
• Push: compare Push Kit delivery, token lifecycle, server integration, and consent handling
• Authentication: compare Account Kit with the app's current identity and account-linking model
• Analytics: define events, consent, retention, regional processing, and reporting parity before selecting an analytics kit
• Purchases: review IAP product support, billing flow, server verification, entitlements, taxes, and current commercial terms
• Ads and ML: verify feature parity, policy, device support, model behavior, and package impact for the exact kit version

Developer Registration

Start from AppGallery Connect and use the account type and verification path available for the publisher's country. Labels, accepted evidence, monetization eligibility, and commercial access can vary.

1. Create or select the publisher identity and preserve the account owner and recovery access
2. Choose the account type that matches the real individual or legal entity
3. Submit only requested evidence using the accepted document type and format shown in the current flow
4. Configure commercial details only if the selected products and publisher country require them
5. Record verification state, case references, authorized users, and follow-up requests

Choose the account type that matches the real publisher and current eligibility rules. Confirm service access, API quotas, commercial features, and authorized contacts in the account before implementation.

HMS Core Integration Setup

Follow the current documentation for each selected kit. The configuration file, repository, plugin, dependency, permission, signing, and console steps can differ by kit and version.

Step 1: AppGallery Connect Configuration

Create the matching app record in AppGallery Connect, confirm package and signing identity, and add the configuration file required by the selected kit's official setup guide.

Step 2: Gradle Configuration

Add the Huawei Maven repository and AGConnect plugin to your project-level and app-level build.gradle files. Huawei provides detailed documentation for each SDK.

Step 3: SDK Integration

Add only the kits and modules the product uses. Measure the resulting package, permissions, startup behavior, privacy disclosures, and dependency conflicts in the release build; do not rely on a generic size estimate.

Step 4: Testing

Test on representative Huawei devices and use the testing resources currently available in Huawei's developer tooling. Verify quotas, regions, device catalog, access, and pricing before planning the test matrix.

GMS to HMS Migration

If the app uses Google services, compare these architecture options against product scope and test cost:

Option 1: Store-Neutral Adapters

Maintain GMS and HMS adapters in one codebase when the product and store packages can share them safely. Test capability detection, authentication, maps, push, billing, analytics, and failure behavior on the actual target devices.

Option 2: Separate Builds

Create separate APKs for Google Play (GMS) and AppGallery (HMS). Uses Gradle build flavors. Simpler code but requires maintaining two build configurations.

Option 3: HMS-Only

Full migration to HMS. Only suitable if you are targeting Huawei devices exclusively or if your app does not use many Google services.

App Submission Process

Use Huawei's current release process for the exact package format, fields, declarations, assets, regions, and review state available to the app.

1. Log into AppGallery Connect
2. Create new app — Fill package name, category, supported devices
3. Upload a package type accepted by the current workflow and confirm signing identity
4. Complete the localized listing and assets required for each selected market
5. Complete the privacy, permissions, content, age-rating, and category declarations shown for the app
6. Set supported devices, pricing, products, and distribution regions that the account can actually serve
7. Submit for review and track the store-controlled status and requests

Monetization on AppGallery

• Paid downloads — Verify product eligibility, countries, taxes, and the current fee schedule
• HMS IAP — Confirm supported products, billing SDK, server handling, and current commercial terms
• Huawei Ads — Evaluate supported formats, consent, data disclosures, geography, and measured yield
• Advertising products — Use only currently available Huawei products and verify campaign country, attribution, consent, and account terms

Best Practices for Huawei AppGallery

1. Test on real Huawei devices — Emulators do not perfectly replicate HMS behavior
2. Scope mainland China separately — Verify current language, licensing, content, hosting, privacy, and distribution requirements before including that market
3. Use Huawei testing resources — Check the current device catalog, regions, quotas, and pricing in the official developer tooling
4. Implement HMS fallback — Gracefully handle cases where specific HMS kits are unavailable
5. Track both platforms — Use HMS Analytics for AppGallery and Firebase for Google Play