This helps him gain perspective on the mobile industry at large and gives him multiple points of reference in his coverage. Since then, he has mostly been faithful to the Google phone lineup, though these days, he is also carrying an iPhone in addition to his Pixel 6. After running into connectivity problems with the HTC One S, he quickly switched to a Nexus 4, which he considers his true first Android phone. His first steps into the Android world were plagued by issues.

He isn't shy to dig into technical backgrounds and the nitty-gritty developer details, either. This background gives him a unique perspective on the ever-evolving world of technology and its implications on society. Before joining Android Police, Manuel studied Media and Culture studies in Düsseldorf, finishing his university 'career' with a master's degree. He focuses on Android, Chrome, and other software Google products - the core of Android Police’s coverage. Manuel Vonau joined Android Police as a freelancer in 2019 and has worked his way up to become the publication's Google Editor. So improvements are likely to continue, making this a noteworthy choice as an alternative to keep in your back pocket. Still, the developers are working hard to bring AppGallery up to speed as a complete replacement for the Play Store major changes to the store were pushed through in 2020 to focus on honing in on popular and familiar apps. Unfortunately, app discovery is still a weak point for AppGallery. You can download apps directly on the store, but if the store doesn't have the app, you can grab the linked APK by tapping 'get' (as opposed to 'install' for apps already on the store). But thankfully, any Android-powered device has access to Huawei AppGallery, and most will find it much less cluttered and more straightforward to navigate than the Play Store. Huawei devices come preloaded with the AppGallery already since, unfortunately, Huawei doesn't play nice with Google ( considering that all Google-serviced apps are banned).

It still has a ways to go to catch up to Google, but still, over the years, it has impressively grown, laying in around 580 million monthly active users (in 2022).

Google online play store