How to Play Spotify on Huawei Phone via 3 Ways

Part 1. Why Spotify Isn't Easily Available on Huawei Phones?

Huawei remains a global leader in smartphone innovation, particularly with its industry-leading camera tech. However, a significant shift occurred a few years ago: Huawei has transitioned to its own ecosystem, Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) and newer Huawei devices no longer come pre-installed with Google Play Services.

This change means that while older models like the P20 and P30 had seamless access to the Google Play Store, owners of the P40, P50, P60, the latest Pura series, Mate series, and Nova series, face hurdles when trying to install apps like Spotify.

Check Your Huawei Model Type:

Before downloading anything, you need to know which "era" of Huawei phone you own. This determines whether you can just use the Play Store or if you need a workaround.

For GMS Devices (Google Mobile Services)

These phones were released before the ban (May 2019) and still have full support for Google apps.

• Models: Huawei P30 Pro, P30, P20 Series, Mate 20 Series, Nova 5T.


• The Fix: Simply open the pre-installed Google Play Store, search for Spotify, and install it. You do not need the rest of this guide.

Group B: HMS Devices (Huawei Mobile Services)

These newer phones do not have Google services pre-installed.

• Models: Huawei P40, P50, P60, Pura 70, Pura 80, Mate 30/40/50/60/70/80, Mate X series, Nova 9/10/11/12/13/14.


• The Fix: You must use one of the methods below to play Spotify music on your Huawei phones.

Part 2. How to Download Spotify on Huawei Phones via AppGallery and GBox

Since Spotify isn't always natively available in the AppGallery in all regions, Huawei users often use "GBox". It's a virtualization tool available in the Huawei AppGallery that creates a stable virtual Google environment on your phone. It allow you to sign into the Google Play Store and install Spotify directly on your Huawei device.

Step 1. Open the Huawei AppGallery on your phone and search for "Spotify" in the search box. Find it and tap the "INSTALL" button.

Step 2. It will pop up a message, requiring you to install the GBOX on your phone. You can tap the "INSTALL" > "To Install" button to complete the installation of Gbox.

Step 3. Once installed, Spotify will appear in your GBox app list. You can long-press the icon and select "Add to Home Screen" to create a shortcut, so you don't have to open GBox every time you want to listen to music on Spotify on Huawei.

Part 3. How to Use Spotify Web Player on Huawei Pura/Mate/Nova

If you are having trouble with installations or just need to play Spotify music quickly on your Huawei device, the Spotify Web Player is a solid backup. It doesn't require any installation, though it lacks offline downloads and the highest audio quality settings.

Step 1. Open the Huawei Browser and navigate to open.spotify.com.

Step 2. Tap the "Log In" button to Log in with your Spotify account credentials and now you can browse your library and listen to Spotify songs on your Huawei phone.

Part 4. How to Play Spotify on Huawei Phone Offline Freely

While you cannot natively install the Spotify app on newer Huawei devices via the Google Play Store, you can still enjoy your entire library using the built-in Huawei Music Player. The challenge is that Spotify tracks are encrypted, preventing them from being moved or played outside the official app. To bypass this, you simply need to convert your Spotify playlists into Huawei-compatible local tracks.

DRmare Music Converter for Spotify is a specialized tool designed to strip away encryption and re-encode your Spotify music into high-quality formats. It can 15X download songs, playlists, albums, and more from Spotify with zero quality lossless for both free and premium users. At the same time, you can export them to MP3, FLAC, AIFF, WAV, M4A, or M4B depending on your storage and quality preferences. If necessary, you can also adjust technical parameters like audio channels, bit rate, and sample rate to optimize the listening experience on your Huawei hardware. Whether you are using an older Huawei P20 or the latest Pura 80, you can now play Spotify songs offline without any problem.

How to Download Spotify Songs for Huawei Phone

Step 1Import Spotify songs to DRmare program

Open DRmare Spotify Music Converter and it will show the main screen with the built-in Spotify Web Player to you. You can log in to your account and find favorite songs that you'd like to enjoy on Huawei phone. Tap the item and click the "Add" > "Add to List" button to load them to the conversion queue.

Step 2Choose Spotify output parameters for Huawei devices

DRmare presets the output format as Lossless. You can do a few tweaks by clicking the "Menu" > "Preferences" option. Here, you can change the output format, Spotify bit rate, sample rate, and more for converting Spotify songs. After that, click "OK" to confirm them.

Step 3Download Spotify tracks for Huawei phone

Now, press the "Convert' button under the Converting section. Your Spotify songs will be downloaded in batch to the folder you selected. Once finished, you can go to the 'Converted' section on the DRmare program to check them on your computer.

How to Transfer and Listen to Spotify Songs to Huawei Mobile Phone

At this time, you can start to move Spotify music to Huawei phone from your computer for enjoying. Please follow the steps on how to make it.

Step 1. Connect your Huawei mobile phone to your computer via a USB cable. Then it will be detected immediately.

Step 2. Open the "default music folder" and create a new folder to save the local Spotify music files.

Step 3. Then you can copy the songs from your computer and paste them to the new folder on Huawei phone.

Step 4. Open the Huawei Music Player; it will automatically detect the new files, allowing you to listen offline without needing Google Services or a constant data connection.

Extra Tips: How to Get Spotify to Show on Lock Screen Huawei Phone

Stop Spotify from pausing when screen locks is the most common complaint among Huawei users. You successfully install Spotify, start a playlist, lock your phone, and 5 minutes later, silence.

This happens because Huawei's EMUI and HarmonyOS are designed to aggressively save battery life by killing background processes. To enjoy uninterrupted music, you must manually exempt Spotify from these optimizations.

How to Show Spotify on Lock Screen on Huawei Phone

Step 1. Power on your Huawei phone. and open the Settings app on your device.

Step 2. Tap "Apps" again to see the full list, then find and select "Spotify". Tap on "App Launch" (sometimes labeled "Launch details").

Step 3. Toggle the "Manage automatically" switch to OFF. A manual menu will pop up. Ensure all three toggles, Auto-launch, Secondary launch, and Run in background, are turned "ON".

Step 4. Click "OK". Now, the system understands that Spotify is allowed to run even when the screen is dark, preventing the operating system from closing the app to save power.

If you are using Huawei Music Player to listen to Spotify, you can refer to the following steps to fix Spotify not showing on lock screen.

How to Fix Music Controls on the Huawei Lock Screen

Step 1. Open Settings app to choose the Notifications > Badge app icons. Ensure this is toggled ON. While this primarily affects the icon on your home screen, it is a prerequisite for how HarmonyOS handles app status overlays.

Step 2. Go to Settings > Apps & services > Apps. Find Huawei Music in the list. Tap on Notifications and ensure that "Lock screen notifications" is set to Show or Always Display.

Step 3. In that same Notifications menu for Huawei Music, look for a category specifically labeled Playback or Music Player.

1. Tap it and ensure Allow notifications is switched on.
2. Set the "Importance" to High or "Gentle" to Off.
3. Ensure Lock screen is set to Show.

Step 4. On many Huawei phones, music controls only appear if Magazine Unlock is enabled.

• Go to Settings > Home screen & wallpaper > Magazine Unlock.
• Ensure it is toggled ON. If you use a custom third-party theme, the music widget might be blocked by the theme's design.

The Verdict

Even though Huawei phones no longer support Google Play, you can still install and enjoy Spotify easily and safely. Using GBox, Petal Search, Spotify Web Player, or DRmare Spotify Music Converter provides the most reliable results, and optimizing your phone's settings ensures smooth playback. By following the steps above, you'll be able to listen to your favorite playlists, podcasts, and albums on any Huawei device, without complications.