Huawei launches beta of its non-Android phone operating system, HarmonyOS Next
This is brand new operating system by Huawei. Android apps and APKs don't work on it.
HarmonyOS Next's beta is now live. Source: Huawei Central, Huawei.
Huawei has officially launched its standalone smartphone operating system, with the beta version now available to developers who want to go deeper into Huawei’s Mobile Services.
Launched at the Huawei Developer Conference 2024 (HDC 2024), the Chinese telecommunications company announced a new smartphone operating system, HarmonyOS Next, which is not based on an Android fork.
While HarmonyOS Next by Huawei is multi-platform across different device types, it's also app-based. Source: Huawei Central, Huawei.
The new operating system does not contain an Android Open Source Project core, and it runs on its own HarmonyOS microkernel (not truly Linux, but it replaces the old OpenHarmony multi-kernel system). In English, this means that Huawei’s new phone OS is neither iOS nor Android — it’s entirely another operating system that supports Huawei Mobile Services, so Android APKs and apps are entirely incompatible with the new OS.
Also, HarmonyOS Next is a multi-platform operating system, although its HDC 2024 showcase focused more on the phone aspect.
The components that make up Huawei's HarmonyOS Next's architecture. Source: Huawei Central, Huawei.
According to the fansite Huawei Central, Huawei has self-developed HarmonyOS Next in the past five years, including its architecture and components (like its Pangu AI large language model, ArkUI programming framework, and multimedia and graphics engines called Ark).
The performance improvements that HarmonyOS Next is said to have. Source: Huawei Central, Huawei.
The company claimed that the operating system improves overall performance efficiency by 30% and provides 3x faster connectivity between Huawei devices. It also said that power consumption is reduced by 20%, and that it can use generative AI to generate images and “repair sound” for users with speech impairments.
HarmonyOS Next's privacy and security core is called Star Shield.
Huawei also added that it comes with an onboard security and privacy core called Star Shield for privacy and security protection. Star Shield offers system-level file encryption and heightened security for nine specific app permissions.
The beta version of HarmonyOS Next is currently available only in China.
Source: , Huawei Central
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