What is "Harmony OS", an OS for smartphones advocated by Huawei of China?

OS for smartphones advocated by Huawei of China. The company intends to use it as a common platform for integrating, managing and controlling not only smartphones but also ICT devices such as smart home products.

Huawei, a major Chinese telecommunications equipment company, has been sanctioned by the United States in May 2019 and can no longer use Google's Android as its operating system. For this reason, Huawei has developed "HarmonyOS" as an alternative to Android.

Huawei says that the HarmonyOS is more than just an operating system for smartphones and tablets. The company intends to use it as a common platform for integrated management and control of ICT devices such as smart watches and home appliances compatible with smart homes.

HarmonyOS uses smartphone widgets to connect compatible products wirelessly with intuitive operations, allowing data and functions to be used mutually between devices. For example, it is assumed that the corresponding cooking appliances will propose recipes based on the data of the health management application.

In addition, HarmonyOS will be able to work seamlessly across devices, instead of working individually on smartphones and tablets. For example, you can swipe to transfer the game you are playing on your smartphone to your tablet and enjoy the continuation on a larger screen.

Along with the latest "HarmonyOS 2" announced in China on June 2, 2021, smartphones and tablets equipped with the same OS have also appeared. In addition, the company has started updating to HarmonyOS for about 100 Android-equipped products released in the past. The number of updated devices has exceeded 10 million in a week.

Huawei hasn't disclosed compatibility between HarmonyOS and Android. However, there are reports that many Android apps that have already been installed are working fine on smartphones that have been updated from Android to HarmonyOS, so compatibility seems to be high.