In addition to the presentation of the P40 series, Huawei announced that it had chosen a new default SEARCH engine for EMUI that will replace Google's. This is the French Qwant engine, which will be present not only in the interface, but also in Huawei's web browser. An alliance that echoes That of Huawei with TomTom.
Huawei presented its P40 series today. It consists of three models: the P40, the P40 Pro and the P40 Pro. We have largely returned to this launch through a complete article where you can find the technical sheets of the three phones, as well as the main new features concocted in recent months. One of the great new features of the P40 vis-à-vis the P30 is the ousting of all Google services, as for the Mate 30 Pro.
Read also: Huawei is already testing its alternative to Google services
Some have been replaced by system applications,such as the Play Store, Chrome or Gmail. Others had not yet been replaced. Google Maps will soon be so thanks to a partnership with TomTom. The latter will bring a mapping application to the Chinese group that will certainly be deployed in EMUI, both at Huawei and Honor. Another partnership was unveiled today. It concerns the search engine.
Default engine in interface and browser
To replace Google Search, Huawei has chosen to partner with Qwant, the French engine,announced by way of press release. It now appears on the home screen of the EMUI interface, meaning that Qwant is now the default search engine for all P40s, but only in Germany, Italy and France. The small logo of the French engine is placed where you used to see Google's multicolored "G." This is not the only place where Qwant is preinstalled, since you can also find it in the EMUI web browser. Note that the default setting of the browser search engine is Qwant, but you can change it at any time, if your preference goes to Bing or Google Search, for example.
The choice of Qwant is interesting. First, it allows to bring a superb visibility to the French engine which is sorely lacking beyond the French borders. Even though Huawei lost its place as the world's number 2 at the beginning of the year, the firm remains a major player that could well return if it manages to convince that an Android interface without Google is viable. Then, choosing Qwant also means rallying the engine fight against Google's dominant position. The French engine has constantly attacked the American firm on this point. And Huawei seems to be the ideal partner to raise this view higher.