Huawei unveils Harmony OS, its new do-all operating system

Huawei’s Hongmeng OS was unveiled on Friday, in the form of Harmony OS. The operating system is the company’s Android and Fuschia competitor, that will be able to scale across a vast number of devices and applications.

“We’re entering a day and age where people expect a holistic intelligent experience across all devices and scenarios,” said Richard Yu, Huawei’s consumer CEO.

“To support this, we felt it was important to have an operating system with improved cross-platform capabilities. We needed an OS that supports all scenarios, that can be used across a broad range of devices and platforms, and that can meet consumer demand for low latency and strong security.”

Yu notes that Harmony is “completely different” from Android and Apple’s iOS.

“It is a microkernel-based, distributed OS that delivers a smooth experience across all scenarios. It has trustworthy and secure architecture, and it supports seamless collaboration across devices. You can develop your apps once, then flexibly deploy them across a range of different devices,” he continued.

Huawei believes that Harmony can scale across smartwatches, smart displays, smart cars, and smart speakers.

The first version of the OS will be paired with Honor’s smart displays launching later this year. The company expects that it’ll take about three years before Harmony is used in cars.

As for phones, Huawei failed to mention phones or smartphones in its release, suggesting that its immediate future lies with Android. For now.

Feature image: Huawei