At this year’s edition of the Huawei Developers Conference (HDC) in Dongguan, China, Huawei has unveiled its new open source operating system for smartphones and smart devices – HarmonyOS. The Chinese company, which already produces and uses its in-house Kirin processors for most of its smartphones, also unveiled the EMUI 10, based on Android Q (to be released Q3 2019).
HarmonyOS
Created with four major building blocks in mind, HarmonyOS (aka. HongMeng OS in Chinese) is Huawei’s upcoming open-source microkernel-based platform for a wide range of devices including in-vehicle entertainment, smart screens, smart speakers and smart wearables. The new modularised OS was birthed as a countermeasure against future threats of losing access to Google’s Android OS.
It will also support apps built for HTML5, Linux, and Android. Starting with HarmonyOS 1.0, the new OS would be primarily used on smart screen devices launched in the Chinese market before expanding to the global market. While Huawei confirms it will continue to stick with Android and EMUI for its mobile devices but could switch to HarmonyOS if it was forced to do so.
A modularized #HarmonyOS can be nested to adapt flexibly to any device to create a seamless cross-device experience. Developed via the distributed capability kit, it builds the foundation of a shared developer ecosystem #HDC2019 pic.twitter.com/2TD9cgtdG8
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) August 9, 2019
EMUI 10
Starting September, Huawei’s new EMUI 10 (Beta) is scheduled to arrive on the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro flagships. The new software, which various sources believe will be Magic UI 3.0, brings features such as the new general dark mode, new UI design and logo, always-on screen display options, one-touch screen sharing and multi-screen collaboration for linking phones to PC.
https://twitter.com/HuaweiEMUI/status/1164456893424607233
It is expected to deliver extended improvements in the in EROFS (Extendable Read-Only File System) ROM, GPU Turbo and Turbo Link. Huawei’s replacement for Android Auto – the HiCar currently supports over 120 car models and will handle in-car information and entertainment experience. Some of the Huawei and Honor devices eligible to receive the EMUI 10 Beta update include:
- Huawei Mate 20 Lite/ Mate 20/ Mate 20 Pro
- Huawei Mate 20 Porsche RS
- Huawei Mate 20 X/ Mate 20 X 5G
- Huawei Mate 10/ Mate 10 Pro
- Huawei Porsche Design Mate 10
- Huawei Porsche Design Mate RS
- Huawei P30 Lite/ P30/ P30 Pro
- Huawei P Smart Z
- Huawei Nova 4e
- Honor Magic 2
- Honor View 10/V10
- Honor View 20/V20
- Honor 20/ 20 Pro/ 20i or 20 Lite
- Honor 10/10 Lite
