Yes, it’s finally happening. Huawei’s HarmonyOS Next is ditching its shoddy Android roots. As promised at the Huawei Developer Conference (HDC) 2023, the new version of the OS is a new and fresh software effort. Huawei officially launched the HarmonyOS Next beta at this year’s HDC 2024 conference.
Let’s take a look at some basics first. HarmonyOS NEXT is not based on Android, nor is it a Linux system strictly speaking. It is based on OpenHarmony and is a microkernel-based core distributed operating system for HarmonyOS. This means that HarmonyOS NEXT has the HarmonyOS microkernel. It only supports native APP apps via Ark Compiler with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) Core support. This means that the OS has no native compatibility with Android APK apps and files, as shown in this post originally from Weibo.
Huawei’s Harmony OS Next is not compatible with Android APK files.
Ultimately, it is a worthy competitor to both Android and iOS.
Source – Whylab (Weibo) pic.twitter.com/TSBAf4QaHs— Nitin Prasad (@_the_tech_guy) June 22, 2024
As shown in the UI video, HarmonyOS NEXT still looks and feels like a familiar mobile OS. However, this is just the smartphone version, and HarmonyOS NEXT will run on other devices as well. Still, under the hood, this is a brand new architecture that Huawei promises will improve overall performance efficiency by up to 30%. Apparently, connectivity speeds are increased by three times, resulting in faster connections between devices. Overall power consumption is reduced by 20%, which is a lot. However, we are not sure who Huawei is comparing these numbers to here.
As for some of the best features of HarmonyOS NEXT, the OS promises a seamlessly integrated architecture that combines local and cloud features. Interconnectivity is a big part of the experience. Users will be able to share content or seamlessly connect apps across devices without having to go through multiple steps and installation process. HarmonyOS NEXT is also packed with AI. It has native features like image generation, AI sound repair, and reading assistance for people with speech or vision problems.
HarmonyOS Next also promises to be a multimedia powerhouse with support for the Arc Multimedia Engine, Arc Graphics Engine, and FFRT. This last technology apparently promises PC-level ray tracing for games.
At the moment, the HarmonyOS NEXT beta is only available in China. We don’t know what Huawei’s plans are for the future of the OS. But it all sounds very ambitious.