RuStore requires work on bugs – Newspaper Kommersant No. 157 (7358) dated 08/27/2022
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A number of applications for food delivery and travel presented in the RuStore store do not work correctly on phones without Google system services – in particular, on Huawei models. VK offers developers to use “equivalent Russian services”. But if Huawei, after the US sanctions, invested in such programs, then domestic companies simply do not have them yet, and the economy of appearance is not visible.
“Kommersant” tested the performance of applications presented in the RuStore store on Huawei phones that run on Android without Google services (GMS), and identified a number of problems. So, for example, the Sheremetyevo Airport and Burger King applications, if installed on Huawei, display an error about the absence of Google services, while the latter program refuses to work. Some other applications do not display the map (“Islet”, “Chaihona No. 1”) or close when trying to determine the location (“Tutu.ru”). Ostrovka told Kommersant that by the end of the year they plan to make an application without GMS. Kommersant sent requests to the publishers of other applications and to Huawei.
Google services come pre-installed on most Android phones. Non-Google applications can connect to the GMS installed on the phone and implement some of their functions through them: location determination, reading SMS codes, voice input, and others.
Huawei does not use GMS due to sanctions imposed by the United States in 2019, instead the company uses its own set of HMS programs. The company periodically co-finances the development and marketing of applications for HMS: at the end of 2019, the company announced that it would invest $1 billion in promoting HMS, of which more than $10 million would be in Russia.
RuStore was created under the auspices of the Ministry of Digital Development and, according to the site, is positioned as an “independent mobile application store.” The idea of a Russian store became popular after Google and Apple removed the apps of sanctioned Russian banks from their catalogs. Huawei, which operates the AppGallery store, did the same with the applications of VTB, PSB and Otkritie Bank. Many applications that need to use geolocation rely on GMS or HMS for this. Developers can create apps that support both GMS and HMS at the same time, but these apps cannot be uploaded to the Google Play store.
Also, developers can license individual components from other companies – for example, cartography from Yandex or 2GIS owned by Sber – but this increases the size of applications.
The Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Electrical Household and Computer Equipment (RATEK; it includes Huawei, M.Video, etc.) sent an appeal to the Ministry of Digital Development in mid-July, asking them to prescribe the principle of “technological compatibility of programs hosted in a single application store” for RuStore , with the operating system. The ministry told Kommersant that they had received the letter and would consider it in due time. In RATEK, in response to a question whether the appeal is related to the work of the store on Huawei phones, they emphasized that “this is a universal offer that can apply to any vendor.”
VK promises to automatically check the operation of applications on devices without GMS in the future: “Developers will be offered to switch to Russian services similar to GMS, and users will be warned that the application may not work correctly on the device.” About what developments there is a speech, in the company did not specify.
There is no component package on the Russian market that is completely similar to GMS and HMS, says Pavel Golub, co-founder of the digital platform development company arcsinus. He added that Yandex worked on system services in the early 2010s (Yandex.Shell shell, Yandex.Kit firmware, Yandex.Store, etc.), but the projects were closed. If Russian companies decide to create services for phones, it is not clear how they will return the investment, Mr. Golub believes: “With Huawei, everything is clear – HMS investments are included in the cost of devices and will pay off with their sales.”
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