Huawei’s rumored operating system is finally official. At its developer conference in China, Huawei took the wraps off its new OS called Harmony OS. In China, the OS will be known as HongmengOS.
The OS has been developed not just for smartphones but for almost every device one can think of including smart speakers, IoT devices, wearables, laptops, TVs, and more. The OS is microkernel-based to ensure it works across a variety of devices.
HarmonyOS has just been announced at #HDC2019! How are we going to build an all-scenario smart ecosystem and experience? How will we overcome the challenges of future OS for connected things? Stayed tuned with us to find out. pic.twitter.com/x7ZbgcEy2d
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) August 9, 2019
Similar to Android, HarmonyOS will be open source. Huawei also says that it will eventually be able to run all kind of apps, HTML5 apps, Linux apps, and even Android apps. The ARK compiler used in HarmonyOS developer will support Kotlin, Java, Javascript, C, and C++.
The OS will have Trusted Execution Environment across all devices it runs on to keep data secure.
It is unclear if Huawei will shift entirely to HarmonyOS on its devices going forward or not. The company’s Android license was revoked after it was placed on the Entity List but it was reinstated soon after.
Huawei says that while it can move to HarmonyOS on all its devices within a few days, it won’t do so for the sake of its partners. However, if the company is unable to use Android in the future on its devices, it will immediately switch to HarmonyOS.
The first product running HarmonyOS will be the Honor Vision TV set which will launch in China on August 10.
