Some of the RuStore applications do not work correctly on mobile devices that do not have Google Mobile Services applications and services, including Huawei smartphones. It is proposed to use some analogy of these services to solve the problem, but they are not yet available. Huavei has developed its analogy to Google services, but it has to invest $1 billion in the project.
Commersant journalists who tested the effectiveness of the RuStore applications on the lost GMS smartphone, Huawei, confirmed the problem: some apps report a lack of access to GMS, others automatically close. The GMS package allows part of the mobile software functions to be performed: geopositioning, voice entry or SMS validation codes. The Huawei that was sanctioned by the United States lost access to the package and developed its counterpart, and at the end of 2019, announced an intention to spend $1 billion to popularize them, with $10 million to come to Russia.
The RuStore application store was launched as the equivalent of Google Play after Apple and Google's missing applications of sanctioned Russian banks and their own services. By the way, Huavei also removed from her VTB, PSS, and Open Bank catalogue. It is technically possible to provide simultaneous support to GMS and HMS in one application, but such applications are not placed in Google Play. It is also possible to license some components from alternative platforms, such as Yandex or 2GIS cards, but as a result, the size of applications is increasing.
As early as July, the problem of compatibility of mobile services was brought to the attention of the Association of Trade Companies and Producers of Electrical and Computer Equipment, of which Huawei is a member. The organization sent a letter to the Ministry of Statistics, which is in charge of RuStore. In the establishment of the VK application store, it was promised to automatically check applications for compatibility with devices without GMS and to encourage developers to use Russian equivalents of the package, although it did not specify which ones.
In the case of Huawei, the development and support of mobile services is included in the cost of the device, but it is not clear how these costs can be compensated by Russian developers. In the past decade, this was actively worked out in Yandex: Yandex.Shelt, Yandex.Kit, and Yandex.Store apps, all of these projects were subsequently closed.