HarmonyOS NEXT by Huawei completely removes all traces of Android!

Huawei introduced the latest edition of its in-house operating system, HarmonyOS latest, at an event in China. This is the first version of the OS to remove all traces of Android from its DNA, as a result of US sanctions imposed on the business beginning in 2019.

The OS employs Huawei's own microkernel, which is based on OpenHarmony open-source code, and supports applications via both the Huawei Ark compiler and Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), implying that it should be compatible with all of Huawei's existing devices, including smartwatches, tablets, and others.

Huawei has mostly traded in China since then-President Donald Trump placed the company on the United States' "Entity List" in May 2019, which prohibits it from doing business with any organisation operating in the US. At the time, Huawei was selling and supporting devices that ran Android and Google services, which meant that many of them stopped working, causing a financial collapse in the region.

The new operating system, which Huawei is pushing on its announcement page, includes its own AI assistant Xiaoyi, which can be contacted via voice or the device's menu bar. It also has a function akin to Apple's NameDrop and unified control amongst supported Huawei devices, among other things.

The first beta of the new operating system is currently publicly accessible for the Huawei Pura 70 series, Huawei Pocket 2, and Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2024). Huawei has claimed that the new OS will be available in global markets as well, but this was not highlighted during the event, and there is presently no official date for the international deployment.