Harmony OS: Everything you need to know about Huawei's Android alternative
In early September, Huawei Technologies, the world’s biggest smartphone maker, announced that it was preparing to switch from Google’s widely-used Android operating system to Harmony OS for all of its smartphones next year.
Harmony (known as Hongmeng in Chinese) is an OS that Huawei first started developing way back in 2012 when a small group of its top executives headed by founder Ren Zhengfei reportedly held a closed-door meeting to brainstorm ideas on how to reduce its dependency on Android, which could render the company vulnerable to a future US ban.
This ban did materialise in May last year, and new Huawei devices lost access to Google services on the official version of Android.
At the time, the Shenzhen-based company said it was not planning to install Harmony on its smartphones yet as Google’s Android remained the top choice and it wanted to protect the current app ecosystem.
Unlike Google and Apple, which use separate OSes for different types of electronic products, Huawei’s Harmony can be adapted for different devices and uses, according to the company.
