It looks as though a lot of Xiaomi Mi2A owners are struggling to install the Google PlayStore on their new Xiaomi Mi2A phones, great news though there is an easy way to do it!
I picked up my Xiaomi Mi2 earlier this year and have been completely satisfied with it. It’s an awesome phone with great hardware, support and updates! Not so long ago Xiaomi introduced the Xiaomi Mi2A a cheeper dual-core phone with NFC and a larger display. I’ve been eyeing up the Mi2A since it launched, but never had a reason to buy one until my wife’s HTC One X decided it no longer wanted to hold enough charge to last the day. New phone time!
Having owned my Mi2 for half a year I figured that the Xiaomi Mi2A would be much the same but with the added benefit of the larger screener, faster (and it is much much faster) 5Ghz Wifi and built-in NFC, and I’m happy to report it is! Well except for one thing!
Google Play Store
When I installed the Google Play store on my Xiaomi I basically searched for “Play Store” in the MIUI store downloaded installed and voilà done! I’ve also managed to install Play from the great Gapps site on the Mi2 without issue too. With the Mi2A though Google Play would install but would force close as soon as it opened.
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Other international customers also seemed to be having the same issue too, and although many had found workarounds to get Play running I didn’t feel like trying any of them in the local coffee shop on a very hot summer afternoon.
Thankfully there was a super easy way to do it!
How to install Google Play Store on Xiaomi Mi2a
Chinese app developer Eric Xiang has put together an excellent Google Installer app which you can find in Xiaomi’s MIUI app market. The name for the app is in Chinese, but a simple search in English for “Google” will bring it up.
What the app does is install Google applications and the necessary components to your Xiaomi Mi2a automatically, giving you a fully functioning Google PlayStore right on your phone with very little effort!
The Google Installer App also allows you to install other Google Apps services at the same time such as Google Search, Gmail, Chrome, Navigation etc!
Xiaomi Mi2A review coming soon!
So now that our family has adopted yet another Xioami it’s time for a full in-depth review (once my wife let’s me that is!).