Huawei wants HarmonyOS NEXT to be third worldwide after Android and iOS

24 days ago

PhoneArena

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Huawei wants HarmonyOS NEXT to be third worldwide after Android and iOS

HarmonyOS NEXT, the latest version of Huawei's homegrown OS is released with support for 15,000 apps.

Back in May 2019, the U.S. placed Huawei on the entity list which prevented the company from using its U.S. supply chain. No longer allowed to work with Google, Huawei had to either use the open source version of Android or develop its own operating system. A year before it was added to the entity list, we told you that Huawei was working on its own operating system to replace the Google Services version of Android.

We must have purchased the wireless edition of the Farmer's Almanac for 2019 because back in April 2018 we wrote, "Losing its license from Google to use Android means that Huawei would be without Google Services. This would mean that the manufacturer would not be able to pre-install any Google apps on its phones, including the Google Play Store." Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said at the time, "We are developing our own OS out of strategic consideration, because won’t we be doomed if they suddenly cut off our food, don’t allow us to use Android or Windows 8."

HarmonyOS NEXT. | Image credit-Huawei

In 2019, Huawei announced that HarmonyOS would be its replacement for Android on Huawei smartphones and other mobile devices. The OS was an Android "fork" and modified Android by customizing the open-source Android source code (AOSP). That was followed up with the release of HarmonyOS NEXT on October 22nd, 2024 after a public beta was released on October 8th. This version of the software uses only the HarmonyOS kernel and supports only HarmonyOS applications.

The Huawei devices that you can try HarmonyOS NEXT on in 2024 include:

HUAWEI Mate 60
HUAWEI Mate X5
HUAWEI Mate 60 Pro+
HUAWEI Mate X5 Collector's Edition
HUAWEI Mate 60 Pro
HUAWEI Pura 70
HUAWEI Mate 60 RS ULTIMATE DESIGN
HUAWEI Pura 70 Pro
HUAWEI Pura 70 Ultra
HUAWEI Pura 70 Pro+
HUAWEI Pocket 2
HUAWEI Pocket 2 Art Edition
HUAWEI MatePad Pro 13.2-inch
HUAWEI MatePad Pro 13.2-inch Collector's Edition
HUAWEI MatePad Pro 11-inch 2024 model
HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate

Next year, HarmonyOS NEXT will be available for the Nova Flip, Nova 13 series, Nova 12 series, Huawei Mate Pad Pro 12.2-inch, Huawei Mate Pad Air 12-inch, and other devices. Huawei has previously said that it would like HarmonyOS Next to become the world's third largest mobile operating system alongside Android and iOS (numbers one and two, respectively).

AI is deeply integrated within HarmonyOS NEXT on certain features including the AI-powered Xiaoyi assistant. The lock screen has a design similar to iOS and a cool feature will relocate your widgets to look better with your phone's wallpaper. As with any OS, the success of HarmonyOS NEXT will depend on how successful Huawei is at getting developers to write apps for it.

Huawei Consumer Business Group Chairman, Richard Yu, said that 15,000 apps and services are now part of the HarmonyOS NEXT ecosystem and more are on the way. He also confirms that HarmonyOS is now running on over 1 billion devices, globally.