Google has just unveiled its latest update for the Google Play Store, with version 36.3.12 now available for Android devices. Although the app itself doesn’t include explicit changelogs, the recently released June 2023 Google System Updates provide valuable insights into the changes implemented.

Download Google Play Store Apk

The file size for the new update stands at 21.81 MB, making it readily accessible for all Android devices running Android 10+. While this update will install automatically in the background, users can choose to download it manually, ensuring seamless integration.

The Google Play Store’s June 2023 changelogs reveal three key areas of improvement. First, there are updates to search results and ad formats specifically tailored for app-based search queries. This will offer users more streamlined results, providing them with a more intuitive and efficient browsing experience.

Secondly, Google has improved the loading latency of ads on the Home Page. Long load times can be an inconvenience, causing users to potentially miss out on app recommendations. This tweak will reduce the waiting time, providing users with a smoother, more seamless browsing experience.

The third improvement targets a key area of user interaction – reviews. Select search results now highlight crucial information from user reviews. This feature enables users to glean key insights about apps and games directly from the reviews of other users. This helps users make more informed decisions about which apps to download and try.

As always, Google continues to prioritize the safety and stability of its applications. Regularly released updates not only introduce new features but also keep Google Play Store secure, bug-free, and more user-friendly.

Google launched a new feature two months back that empowers users to erase their data from specific apps. This new addition is a clear reflection of Google’s ongoing commitment to upholding user data privacy, offering users an easy and efficient way to manage their personal information across various apps.

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Huawei’s next big move in India is likely to strike a partnership with the Indian regional operating system, IndusOS. The move will grant Huawei access to over 400K regional applications in India in over 12 different Indian languages. This could turn out to be an important strategy for the Chinese giant’s revival in the Indian market this year.

The report comes via Economic Times which states that a deal between Huawei and IndusOS will soon be finalized. The Chinese giant hasn’t been able to crack the Indian market, unlike its rivals like Xiaomi, Realme, and OPPO. The trade ban last year further impacted the company’s business in the region. Therefore this is a very important deal for the company that’s looking to make a comeback in the Indian market.

Huawei’s partnership with IndusOS makes sense. Last year, the same company partnered with Samsung to offer over 400K regional apps to Galaxy smartphone users via its App Bazaar platform. Further, in July 2019, Samsung’s investment arm, Samsung Ventures acquired a 20 percent stake in the company. IndusOS is also the default app store on a number of local smartphone brands like Micromax, Intex, Karbonn.

Tapping the regional market is vital for Huawei’s growth in the region. The lack of Google apps like Gmail, YouTube, and Maps is going to be a huge drawback for Huawei in India. However, with the right strategy which includes a customized experience for Indian users, the company may have some hope for revival.

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Huawei’s retail strategy will also decide its success in the Indian market. As IDC India research director, Navkendar Singh notes, retailers will play a vital role in helping consumers choose a smartphone brand. He adds that they can “easily convince buyers to go to phones with Google support”.

Software is the biggest pain point for Huawei right now. But it has already allocated $1 billion for a global fund to boost app development. The company is also promising incentives up to $17K to the top 150 developers in India to publish apps on its own Huawei AppGallery store. In an official event in late February, the company revealed that Huawei AppGallery is currently the third-largest app store in the world.

However, even if its store features millions of published apps, it remains to be seen whether regional customizations and strategic tie-ups with top developers is enough to convince consumers to use alternatives for highly popular apps like Gmail and YouTube.

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(Source)

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Huawei could be planning to pre-install up to 70 apps on its upcoming international smartphone models to make up for the lack of Google services. The Chinese smartphone maker is banned from using software from US companies like Google, putting its phones at a disadvantage as compared to competitors like Samsung in the international market.

According to Mobiltelefon.ru, Huawei could pre-load nearly 70 selected apps on its smartphones this year. They are expected to be the most popular apps from the Google Play store or viable alternatives to the apps that are dependent on Google services. The pre-loaded apps will vary according to the region.

Since Huawei smartphones can’t run google services, the company will have to provide viable alternatives to popular apps like YouTube and Google Maps. The report states that Huawei will launch its own video service called as Huawei Video sometime in March this year. This is likely going to coincide with the P40 launch in the same month.

READ MORE: Huawei faces a new threat from US’ push to create alternative 5G tech

Huawei’s app store, called the Huawei AppGallery, has around 45,000 apps right now, but it is still nowhere close to the 3 million figure on the Google Play Store. Without access to the Google Play Store, the Chinese smartphone maker will have to ensure that popular apps like Uber, Spotify are available in its own store. Also, it will have to provide viable alternatives to Google’s own apps. In this regard, the company is already in talks with companies like Tomtom (for Google Maps alternative) and Russia’s Yandex.

Huawei reportedly plans to pre-load these apps on at least nine models in the next four months. Mobiltelefon.ru’s source says that Huawei is likely to use this strategy on mid-range models using Kirin 810 and Kirin 710 chipsets. This could include the Huawei Y7p and P40 Lite E models. So Huawei could be using a different strategy for upcoming flagship devices like the Kirin 990 powered Huawei P40 series.

It makes sense why Huawei would want to pre-load a bunch of apps on its international smartphones. Without Google services, the availability of apps would be a big concern on Huawei’s phones. But if most of the popular apps are already on the device, users might be less worried.

However, pre-loading as many as 70 apps doesn’t sound like a good idea, even if they are curated according to the market. Imagine the nightmare sorting out 70 different apps on a brand new smartphone!

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(Source, Via)

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Over the past couple of years, Huawei’s P series has transformed into the ultimate camera flagship, rivaling the likes of the Galaxy Note series and the iPhone flagship models.

This year’s Huawei P40 lineup is extremely important for the brand for two reasons. First, it has big shoes to fill, after the P30 Pro turned out to be an extremely popular camera flagship. Secondly, this year, the Huawei P40 will launch without Google services. So, Huawei will have to convince users to purchase the P40 even without Google apps on board. And it looks like one way to do this is by making the series cheaper this year.

According to @RODENT950 (Teme), the Huawei P40 series will be cheaper at launch. He says that the P40 series models will range between 3599 yuan ($519) to 6599 yuan ($951) in China. The P40 is expected to start around €599 in Europe while the P40 Pro should start at around €799. There should be a premium edition too this year which is expected to start at €1000.

Because I buy these phones largely from China so I bet 3599Y-6599Y (470€ – 870€ ~ 599€- 999€ )

— Teme (特米) (@RODENT950) January 27, 2020

Editor’s Pick: Huawei P40 Pro Premium concept video showcases its curved screen & penta camera lens

The Huawei P30 Pro turned out to be one of the best camera flagships of 2019. And according to recent rumors and leaks, the Huawei P40 Pro and Pro PE (Premium Edition) will be able to carry its legacy.

Making the entire lineup cheaper is actually a pretty smart way to make up for the lack of Google services. Huawei has been aggressively working on developing Google app replacements over the past one year. In this regard, the P40 series will come with the company’s own Huawei Mobile services (HMS).

The lack of Google services would also translate into cheaper cost price of the smartphone. Google revealed last year that it was charging up to $40 for preloading GAPPs on Android smartphones in Europe. So, these savings could be directly transferred to the customers via cheaper launch prices.

Now the real question is – if the P40 Pro turns out to be the best camera smartphone of the year, would people consider it without Google Apps, even if it’s significantly cheaper than premium flagships?

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Google, the search engine giant, has launched three new and experimental apps to encourage one to use their smartphones less. These new apps are a part of the company’s Digital Wellbeing initiative and one of these offers a unique solution which basically involves you putting your handset in an envelope.

The new apps were launched on 21st January 2020 and are made to help people use their smartphones less often. However, the envelope from Google does let users make calls. Unfortunately, the envelope currently only supports Google’s Pixel 3A, for now at least. So for those interested, a Pixel 3A is the only way for one to experience it at the moment.

The app is called Envelope and can be downloaded from Google’s Play Store app. This app will have a PDF attached to it that is supposed to be printed out by the user. Then, cut out the template and build it according to the instructions provided. Once completed, users can put their Pixel 3A devices inside it and are only able to user the number keys for dialing, speed dials and even flashes the numbers on the same to tell the time.

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The Envelope follows a design philosophy from Google that allows smartphone users to disconnect. The effort behind it is to silence digital distractions to allow for more focus in a given environment. Google has open sourced the Envelope app on GitHub so interested users do have the option to tinker with how it works, apart from just calling or being able to use the camera.

Furthermore, the way the envelope is built is also significant in this process. Once sealed, users will have to tear open the seal to access their smartphone. Thus, if one does tear open the seal, they will have to make another one from scratch as it is not designed for sealing and reopening, encouraging longer use in this manner.

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(Via)

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Huawei is still encumbered by the trade sanctions imposed by the US which has ensured that it is unable to launch new models with Google apps onboard. As a makeshift solution, the company is refreshing its 2019 lineup. To this effect, the Huawei P30 Lite New Edition has just been silently launched and it features Google apps!

The new edition P30 Lite is a slight refresh of the P30 Lite which was first launched in early 2019. Design-wise, this new edition is entirely similar to the P30 Lite 2019 and even comes in the same colors: Midnight Black, Pearl White, Peacock Blue, and Breathing Crystal. The major differences between this New Edition and the old model are the RAM and internal storage configurations. Previously, the base variant of the P30 Lite had just 4GB of RAM, but the New Edition comes with 6GB. Likewise, the internal storage also got bumped up to 256GB from 128GB which was on both memory versions of the original P30 Lite.

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Aside from these few differences, the new edition is similar to the original P30 Lite. As a reminder, the Huawei P30 Lite features a 6.15-inch IPS LCD display with a waterdrop notch and full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2312 pixels. It is powered by a Hisilicon Kirin 710 SoC. There is a shared SIM slot on the device for adding a microSD card.

For photography, the P30 Lite packs a triple camera setup made up of a 24-megapixel selfie camera and a 48-megapixel + 8-megapixel (ultrawide) + 2-megapixel (depth) triple rear cameras. The device packs a 3,340mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging. It has a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner.

The Huawei P30 Lite New Edition will be available in the United Kingdom starting on January 15, 2020. It comes with a price tag of £299 (~$389). We expect Huawei to release the device in other markets soon.

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Huawei launched the next-generation Mate 30 series flagship smartphones last month in China, making them the first set of devices from the Chinese giant to come without support for Google apps and services because of the ban on the company from the United States.

But there was a workaround available which enabled users to install Google apps and services on the Mate 30 series phones. However, a report published last week raised concerns related to the security issues by using the workaround and soon after that, LZ Play app, which was the workaround for installing Google services was shut down.

Now, in the latest development, it is being reported that the Google Mobile Services on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro can still be installed easily and successfully. It claims that all the applications got installed and worked immediately and are continuing to work perfectly without any issues.

The report also addressed concerned about Google Pay service not working. It claimed that the issue is related to EMUI, the custom user interface from Huawei. It adds that Google Pay conflicts have been reported on other Huawei devices as well, including those phones which are running full Google Mobile services.

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However, the report has not mentioned that it’s the same workaround which has been shut down. If so, it has not mentioned how they got access to the LZPlay given that the website LZPlay.net is still down.

Till now, Huawei Mate 30 series smartphones were limited to China only and thus, there was no issue about the absence of Google Play services on the devices. However, the company has not started rolling out devices to other markets, starting with Malaysia. Access to Google services outside China is crucial and most Android users rely on its apps and services for various day-to-day tasks.

In the absence of support from Google, Huawei is pushing developers to work for its own app store which is called Huawei App Gallery. The company is also ready to pump in over $1 billion to establish its app store. In remains to be seen if this new experiment from Huawei becomes successful because many companies have tried to make their own app ecosystem and have failed.

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(Source)

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MIUI China, unlike its global version, doesn’t come with Google apps which are popularly known as Google Mobile Services. In fact, no Android device sold in China comes bundled with Google apps, you very well know the reason. As such the popular Redmi Note 7 Pro Chinese variant is devoid of Google apps.

⇒ Editor’s Pick: Xiaomi Mi A3 vs Realme 5 Pro vs Redmi Note 7 Pro: Specs Comparison

Fortunately, Google apps are not completely shut on MIUI devices. Here, we’ll go through the steps on how to install Google apps on Redmi Note 7 Pro with MIUI China

Before we begin, a quick overview of GMS for the unversed. The GMS is Google’s proprietary app bundle which includes the premium apps such as YouTube, Gmail and so on. Most notably, GMS is not a part of the Android Open Source Project, which means an Android manufacturer needs to obtain a license from Google in order to legally install GMS on an Android device.

Steps to enjoy Google Apps on Redmi Note 7 Pro

1. Go to the Mi App Store
2. Input Google on the search bar.
3. Click on the Baidu icon which will appear on the results after few down scrolls.
   
4. You’ll see an app about 168 KB size with Google Play Store logo, install it.
5. Open the app and click on the blue round icon below. It will start downloading the Google Service Framework(Install it manually just by clicking install).Note: You’ll need to enable Unknown sources from Privacy setting.
6. Install all the forthcoming Google service apps manually one by one.
7. At last, it will download the Google Play Store and prompt you to install it. Install it without hesitation.

8. After the successful installation of the Google Play Store, log in to the Play Store using your Google Account and enjoy Google Play Store.

With the Google Play Store now installed you can install other GMS apps such as YouTube, Gmail as well on your Redmi Note 7 Pro.

Simple isn’t it? Still, if you encounter any trouble, don’t hesitate to drop down in the comments. We’d love to help you out if any error persists.

Up Note: Best Custom ROMs for Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro

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Google’s Android OS is available on billions of devices all over the world. Those devices are made by a plethora of manufacturers and some of these devices aren’t certified by Google. The tech giant wants that to change and has taken a big decision to fix that.

Last week, Android Police discovered that Google was locking users out of Google apps on devices that are not certified. Affected users are said receive a “Device not certified by Google” error message.

An official statement by Google (below) confirms the development:

“Certified Android devices offer users consistent experiences when using apps from Google and the Play Store, as well as various security benefits through Google Play Protect. We acknowledge that some manufacturers are building and selling devices that have not been certified by Google. Please see the website for more details.”

The website says certified devices go through hundreds of tests to ensure they “adhere to Android security and permissions model and have software builds with the recent security updates”.

Google adds that certified devices are required to ship without pre-installed malware and also include Google Play Protect which provides automatic virus scanning and Find My Device. New certified devices will also include the Play Protect logo.

For those with devices that are not Google certified, Google recommends you get in touch with the manufacturer or retailer for a fully tested and certified device.

However, there is actually a way for you to still use Google apps even after you have been blocked. Google provides an option for devices running custom ROMs but it requires your Google Services Framework ID. Google can’t actually tell if your device is truly running a custom ROM or not. So, if you get the error message, there is a link to a site where you can get exempted from the block.

The site requires you to sign in with your Google account details and then asks for your GSF ID. Getting the GSF ID is tricky but there are apps that you can use to extract the info. APKMirror has an app called DeviceID which can help you get the info, however, you must have Google Play Services installed to get the ID. Google will only allows 100 devices per user and it is reported that a factory reset may change your ID. So, anytime you do a factory rest, it counts against the 100 devices available.

READ MORE: Google Rebrands Android Wear As Wear OS

Even with the above bypass, it is better you get a device that has been certified by Google due to the security advantages it brings. It doesn’t cost a manufacturer money to get its devices Google certified but a lot of manufacturers still won’t do so.

(Source)

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The OnePlus One is only available to the general public via third-party dealers, the invitations are taking too long to get to the people who want the smartphone. There are some available through third-party dealers like Oppomart, but the version for sale requires the installation of CyanogenMod 11.0 which could put off many who aren’t sure of how to do it. To put your mind at rest however, here are the fairly simple instructions required to get your shiny new  smartphone up and ready to go. If this reads like nonsense to you, there are plenty of helpful and knowledgeable people in forums who are happy to provide support and help to anyone in need of it.

Instructions:

First time flashing CyanogenMod 11.0 your device, or coming from another ROM?

1. Download the zip(s).
2. Optional: adb backup
3. Perform a NANDroid backup of your current ROM.
4. Wipe data & cache partitions of your device (required when coming from stock!).
5. Flash CyanogenMod.
6. Optional: Install the Google Apps addon package.

The links to the downloads required can be found here:

CyanogenMod Download: link​

Google Apps addon: link

Sourcecode:
ROM: https://github.com/CyanogenMod
Devicetree: https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_device_xiaomi_aries
Kernel: https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_kernel_xiaomi_aries

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