One Link for the App Store, Google Play, and Huawei AppGallery
A Google Play link is a dead end on a Huawei phone. Here is how one smart link routes every Android visitor to a store that actually exists on their device.
The Android market is not one market
Most app campaigns treat Android as a single destination: Google Play. That assumption quietly breaks in some of the fastest-growing app markets on the planet. Huawei phones sold since 2019 ship without Google Mobile Services, which means no Play Store app, a Play web page that goes nowhere, and no install at the end of your funnel.
If you run campaigns in Turkey, the Middle East, Latin America, China, or Russia, a measurable slice of your paid clicks lands on devices where your Google Play link simply cannot complete. The fix is not a second link and a second QR code on every asset. It is one link that reads the device and picks the right store in a single hop.
Why AppGallery deserves a lane in your funnel
AppGallery is not a niche store you can round down to zero. It ships as the default store on every current Huawei device, and the install base has kept growing through the HarmonyOS expansion.
monthly active AppGallery users
Huawei, 2025
HarmonyOS share of the Chinese phone market in Q2 2025, ahead of iOS at 16%
Counterpoint Research
countries where AppGallery has more than one million users
Huawei, 2025
What actually happens when a Huawei user taps your Play link
On a device without Google services, a play.google.com link opens in the browser and asks the visitor to sign in to a store their phone cannot use. Nobody completes that journey. The click still cost you money, the visitor still wanted your app, and your analytics recorded it as a mystery drop-off.
The same applies in reverse: an AppGallery link is noise for the majority of Android users who do have Google services. Device-aware routing is the only version of this that does not sacrifice one audience for the other.
One link, three stores, one hop
How the routing decision works
Standard behavior, nothing to configure beyond your App Store URL.
The overwhelming majority of Android devices worldwide take this branch.
Detected at click time, so HMS-only devices land on a store that can actually install your app.
Every link needs a website URL, and it catches traffic that has no store at all.
The printed QR problem this quietly solves
Print is where multi-store routing pays for itself twice. A QR code on packaging, a poster, or a conference badge cannot ask the person scanning it what phone they own. When the QR encodes a smart link instead of a store URL, one printed code covers all three stores plus your website.
Because the QR encodes the link and not the destination, you can also repoint it after printing. If you later publish on another store or move a campaign, the code on ten thousand boxes keeps working.
A note on RuStore and the widening store landscape
Huawei is the largest example, but not the only one. RuStore, preinstalled on Android phones sold in Russia since September 2025, passed 67 million monthly users this year. Store fragmentation is growing, not shrinking, and regulators in several regions are actively encouraging it.
Building your campaign links on a routing layer now means each new store is a configuration change, not a reprint, a re-shoot, or a re-run of every asset that carries your link.
Appy now covers the next ones too: Galaxy Store and GetApps for the Samsung and Xiaomi phones it can recognise, and RuStore for Android phones in Russia. The setup is in our guide to app store links by country.
Set it up in Appy
- 1Create a link and paste your App Store and Google Play URLs.
- 2Add your AppGallery listing URL as the Huawei destination.
- 3Add your website URL for desktop and unrecognized devices, then save.
- 4Download the QR in SVG or PNG and test one scan on an iPhone, a Google-services Android, and a Huawei device before the campaign ships.
Frequently asked questions
How is a Huawei device without Google services detected?
The redirect inspects the device signals sent with the click, including the user agent, at request time. HMS-only Huawei models are routed to AppGallery; Huawei models that still carry Google services follow the normal Google Play branch.
Do I need a separate link or QR code per store?
No. One link carries all store destinations plus your website, and the QR code generated for it inherits the same routing.
What if my app is not on AppGallery yet?
Leave the AppGallery destination empty and HMS devices go to your website. Add the store URL later without changing the link or reprinting anything.
Does routing to AppGallery cost extra?
No. Store routing, including AppGallery, works on every plan, and redirects are unlimited on the Free plan.
Continue exploring
App Store Link by Country: How to Send Every Market to the Right Store
One app link that sends Android users in Russia to RuStore, Samsung and Xiaomi phones to their own stores, Huawei to AppGallery and everyone else to Google Play or the App Store, with an honest look at when a phone’s brand can be recognised.
How to Create One Link for App Store and Google Play
How one smart link sends iPhones to the App Store, Android phones to Google Play and desktops to your website, how to build it for free in minutes, and what to test before printing it.
Custom Product Page and Custom Store Listing Links: Send Each Campaign to Its Own Store Page
Apple allows 70 custom product pages and Google Play 50 custom store listings, each with its own URL. How the two URLs work, one link per campaign for both, what the deep link field changes, and where to read results without an MMP.
Looking for something else? Browse all topics on the blog.
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