Huawei Unveils Latest Version of Harmony OS, an Alternative to Google’s Android

Chinese technology giant Huawei has unveiled its latest version of its Harmony operating system (HarmonyOS) which is seen as an alternative for Google’s Android.

The announcement was made by the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business Richard Yu Chengdong at the Huawei Developer Conference 2020 held at Songshan Lake

HarmonyOS was announced back in 2019. The company says it will make the Beta version of the HarmonyOS 2.0 SDK (software development kit) available to developers on Thursday.

HarmonyOS 2.0 brings a comprehensive upgrade to its existing distributed capabilities, including software bus, data management, and security.

The latest development in HarmonyOS, EMUI 11 and its own ecosystem Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) Core 5.0 will enable its products to seamlessly connect to others, which is considered the Chinese tech giant’s direct response to the expanded ban from the Trump administration.

Huawei also unveiled EMUI 11 with multi-window and split-screen functionalities, dedicated gesture to bring out the Smart Multi-Window sidebar. The always-on screen gets a couple of new customization options as well including new styles and even animated always-on displays.

Even though EMUI 11 is not based on Android 11, the generational upgrade deserves its name.

EMUI 11 will be pre-installed on all new Huawei phones from now on while the final version of the software will hit P40 and Mate 30-series soon.

Yu says that despite the US’s restrictions on Huawei, the company recorded 105 million smartphone unit shipments in the first half of 2020.

With the support of more 1.8 million registered developers worldwide, AppGallery and the HMS ecosystem has continued to show progress this year.

The AppGallery currently has over 96,000 apps integrated with HMS Core and more than 490 million global active users. In addition, it also achieved a record 261 billion app downloads and distributions between January and August 2020.