Huawei’s “Apps UP” contest puts up $1 million in prizes for the best apps and games using HMS Core

The trade restrictions imposed on Huawei by the US have forced the company to lay more emphasis on developing its own products. Over the last year, the company has managed to set up an ecosystem of alternative products to replace all of Google’s products that it currently doesn’t have access to. These include HMS Core, which is an alternative to Google Mobile Services, Harmony OS, which is a first-party alternative to Google’s Android, and AppGallery, which replaces the Google Play Store. But while its ecosystem is almost complete, Huawei still needs the support of third-party developers to get its own services at par with Google’s offerings. To do this, the company has been sending developers requests to publish their apps on AppGallery and has announced a new Preferential Policy to give developers a bigger cut of the revenue. Now, in a bid to get developers to build more apps using HMS Core, the company has announced a new contest offering $1 million in prizes for the best apps and games that use the GMS alternative.

The Huawei HMS app innovation contest called Apps UP invites developers from all around the world to create innovative apps using HMS Core. The contest is live in five regions — Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Latin America, and China — and the top developers from the region will be awarded $1 million in cash prizes, funded by the Shining-Star program. The contest also gives developers the opportunity to compete with their peers on a global scale and showcase their technical ability using HMS Core. Developers will also get a chance to interact with industry experts and get free access to Huawei Developers events, courses, and certifications.

Huawei announced the contest at a recent event and showcased a few examples of apps that feature integration with HMS Core. These include an art app called Sketch AR which makes use of Huawei’s HiAI to create a smart app for virtual art creation, an app called StorySign, which integrates with Machine Learning Kit and blends image recognition with HiAI Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to translate popular children’s books into sign language.

Speaking at the event, Zhang Ping’an, President of Consumer Cloud Service at Huawei Consumer Business Group, said, “The number of talented developers of HMS ecosystem is growing. The work that developers do is integral to so much of our daily life. Through the apps they create, they empower us to seamlessly navigate the world around us. At Huawei, we want to invite developers to join us in building a better future and turn their ideas into reality using HMS Core offered by Huawei Mobile Services.”

If you’re an app developer who’s interested in taking part in Huawei’s Apps UP contest, you can register your account before August 30th by following this link. You can sign up as an individual developer or as a team with up to three members. In order for your app to be eligible, it must be developed with HMS Core integration and submitted on the contest’s official website before 18:00 UTC on August 30th. All eligible apps will be evaluated by a panel of regional industry experts based on social value, business value, user experience, and originality. The top 20 shortlisted apps in each region will make their way to the finals that will be held in October and the apps will be made available for the public on the contest’s official website or Huawei AppGallery from September 21st.

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