Although it has been on the market for some time, HarmonyOS has always started from AOSP (the open source version of Android). Huawei has promised that this situation will soon no longer be the case, as it wants to completely separate itself from Android and start its own business. Did they do it? Yes, they finally delivered.
Huawei just showed up HarmonyOS NEXT, your own operating system without Android. What things change? Why has Huawei taken this path? What’s new? Here we tell you everything in a well summarized and easy to understand way.
Why does HarmonyOS NEXT exist? A little context
As you probably know, for a few years Huawei faces a series of sanctions imposed by the United Statesmainly due to 5G technology. These sanctions are part of the trade war that this country has with China, something that has forced Huawei to change all its strategies. Qualcomm and Google also turned their backs on them, dealing a serious blow to the company’s mobile branch.
Some examples of what they missed?: reduction in sales in the global marketnot being able to use Qualcomm 5G chips, TSMC’s problems in producing new chips for Huawei led them to sell Honor and they can’t even use Google apps (Google Mobile Services).
However, Huawei is a giant with a lot of money and has managed to overcome to this. On the one hand, their flagship phones have become the kings of photography; On the other hand, they continue to innovate in numerous sections of the market; They also have excellent sales in China; and finally They decided that Google would not influence them and they decided to create their own mobile operating system (HarmonyOS).
What is HarmonyOS NEXT and how does it differ from HarmonyOS?
As we have just mentioned, Huawei has decided to create its own mobile operating system with the aim of depending less and less on Google. Furthermore, his idea was to create a unified operating system for a multitude of smart devicesnot just smartphones.
The detail? From the beginning they couldn’t completely separate themselves from Android, due to application compatibility issues and because the probability of something going wrong increased exponentially. What did they do? They developed HarmonyOS by participating in AOSP and they also created their own app ecosystem (Huawei Mobile Services). This would be the bridge to reach the final goal: a totally independent operating system.
On the path of that transition The OpenHarmony project and its own microkernel were created based on Linux. Once HarmonyOS is established and with the other elements of the board sufficiently developed, our protagonist appears: HarmonyOS NEXT.
HarmonyOS NEXT is an operating system that no longer has any dependence on Googlesince it doesn’t even share the microkernel with Android. Full development is by Huawei, is compatible with HMS and has its own apps compiled with Huawei Ark. In fact, according to Richard Yu (president of Huawei CBG), HarmonyOS NEXT already has 15,000 compatible apps and counting.
Now, Are there any other differences compared to previous versions of HarmonyOS? Obviously.
What new features does HarmonyOS NEXT introduce compared to HarmonyOS?
In addition to all the changes at the heart of the operating system and its emancipation from Android, HarmonyOS NEXT brings other changes. Yes, indeed, most are visual, thanks to HarmonyOS NEXT 5’s user interface:
- New lock screenwith a flatter style and greater customization.
- Redesigned home screenwith the same type of changes as the lock.
- Renovated control centermore intuitive and with new functions available.
- Faster animations throughout the interface.
- Startup speed improvements of applications.
- New features powered by artificial intelligence (no details).
- Up to 30% more fluidity andn compatible devices.
- Up to 20% less consumption energetic.
- HuaweiShare 2.0with faster file transfer speed.
- Star shielda new security system with system-wide protection.
Is HarmonyOS NEXT exclusive to smartphones? No, it will be the same for other devices
Like HarmonyOS, HarmonyOS NEXT will not be exclusive to smartphones. Huawei hopes to bring it to other devices soon, such as smartwatches, tablets, cars, computers and even Smart TVs (if necessary). Come on, something very similar to what Xiaomi has planned with HyperOS.
In fact, it is expected that most devices compatible with HarmonyOS can be upgraded to HarmonyOS NEXT. In fact, only those that no longer have update support are the ones that should stay without making the leap.
When will HarmonyOS NEXT arrive on your device? Will he leave China?
At the time of writing this article, HarmonyOS NEXT was only available in public beta. Furthermore, it has only been launched for Huawei Pura 70, Huawei Pocket 2, and Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2024). Availability to other devices is expected to gradually increase as the weeks went by.
What about global availability? For now, HarmonyOS NEXT will be exclusive to the Chinese marketbut Huawei has already announced in the past that it hopes to bring it to the global market. However, there is also no time window in which this could happen.
On purpose, OpenHarmony will continue to be available to everyone and develop it using it as a basis (like AOSP).
