Huawei Unveils It’s Own OS HarmonyOS To Compete Android After Trump’s Ban

Huawei has finally officially announced HarmonyOS. The operating system it was rumored to be developing to replace its reliance on Android. In China the software will be known as HongmengOS.

In the city of Dongguan, China early Friday, August 9, 2019, Huawei finally took the wraps off its long-rumored, first-party operating system. The OS, called Harmony OS, has been in development for several years

The company says the operating system can be used in everything from smartphones to smart speakers and internet-of-things devices like sensors.

Harmony OS is microkernel-based, like Google’s in-development Fuchsia OS. Huawei says this allows for flexible deployment on various devices, improving security in all scenarios. Developers will be able to use Huawei’s ARK Compiler to compile code from multiple languages like C/C++, Java, and Kotlin for Harmony OS. Huawei will be providing an SDK to support app development across multiple device types, including televisions, car kits, smartphones, smartwatches, and more. Harmony OS will not allow for root access, which Huawei says is a security risk on Android and other Linux-based operating systems. Huawei boasts an EAL 5+ certification level for the new OS. Finally, Huawei will be open-sourcing Harmony OS in the future.

The software is primarily aimed at IoT products (such as smart displays, wearables, smart speakers and cars) instead of smartphones,

The Chinese tech giant said the OS will be open-sourced with its own ARK compiler. It will also support existing Android apps

Yu stated that when Huawei can no longer access Google’s Android ecosystem, it can deploy Harmony OS “at any time.” Until then, Huawei will continue to support Android.

Earlier this week, Chinese media reported the company is set to release a phone based on HarmonyOS by the end of this year

This comes after the chinese tech giant was denied business In the US, in May, Google banned Huawei from using Android, following the latter’s inclusion in the US entity list. Later, Huawei accelerated its efforts to develop this OS as an alternative to Android.