Oliver Haslam on August 9, 2019, 8:37 pm

Huawei Officially Announces Its Own Android Alternative Operating System And It’s Called HarmonyOS

Huawei has officially taken the wraps off of its new operating system. HarmonyOS is the software that is said to be set to replace Android on at least some of its smartphones, although it will be known as Hongmeng within China.

While smartphones are where most people will see HarmonyOS do its thing, Huawei says that it can e used in just about any setting including wearables, speakers, and even in-car systems.

In order to encourage adoption Huawei also says that it will be releasing HarmonyOS worldwide and open sourcing it.

Google famously suspended Huawei’s license to use Android when the Chinese company was added to the United States Entity List. That list includes companies that US firs are not allowed to do business with and its presence put Huawei in a difficult position. It was then that we heard that Huawei was already working on a replacement for Android. And now that replacement also has a name.

The expectation is that Huawei will be able to launch what it’s calling “smart screen products” with HarmonyOS installed later this year. Other implementations will come along in due course, Huawei believes that the ability for HarmonyOS to run on multiple kinds of devices is what sets it apart from competing platforms like iOS and even Android.

Quite how successful HarmonyOS will be still very much depends on apps. Developers of Android apps will need to recompile their work so that it can function on the new operating system. And whether that will be something they actually do remains to be seen.