In May 2019, the US Department of Commerce blacklisted Huawei, losing access to US components, technologies, and services. Huawei has hit hard on the ban on using Android with Google services on its phones, so the Chinese company has hastily scrambled its own solution called Harmony OS. Initially it was a platform for smart TVs and IoT devices, but version 2.0 is also intended for smartphones, and some are due to arrive this year.
So far, Huawei has talked about Harmony OS as a third emerging system that has been built from the ground up in Huawei’s development labs and will soon want to disrupt the dominance of Android and iOS. But as server editors show Ars TechnicaThe reality is a little different.
Harmony OS is currently only compelling Android
Editor Ron Amadeo made a successful bid to become a Harmony OS developer, even Huawei had to send a photo of his passport and credit card and pass the verification check. Ultimately, he managed to get a developer account and get a trial copy of Harmony OS, albeit only through the cloud; It is not yet possible to download a trial version to an existing phone. What did we discover?
Simply put, Harmony OS 2.0 beta is the only pure Android 10 with EMUI extension, all iterations of the word Android have been replaced by Harmony OS; In the code itself, the Android name has remained in many places. And that’s actually all. Huawei App Gallery is pre-installed on the system, which contains classic apps designed for Android. So it’s similar to Amazon’s Fire OS, but it’s not ashamed of its origin.
After hours of searching Harmony OS, Ron Amadeo found almost no difference to Android, except for a few renamed elements. Given that Huawei wants to launch its first Harmony OS phones this year, it’s almost implausible that there will be a drastic changeover and a complete replacement of the core.
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