Huawei announced that it would develop and install its own operating system, HarmonyOS, as it was designated as a national security threat in the United States and was forced to stop trading with American companies. . However, according to reports, most of Harmony OS are Android derivatives.
As the conflict between the US and China deepened, business between Google and Huawei was also halted, and even though many Huawei smartphones were equipped with Android, Google products such as Google Play could not be used. In response to this situation, Huawei is developing Harmony OS as its own operating system to replace Android.
Huawei reiterates that HarmonyOS is a new operating system that is different from Android, and Wang Chenglu, head of the consumer software division, insisted in January 2021 that HarmonyOS is not an Android or iOS copy. Harmony OS development is progressing considerably and is expected to be installed in Huawei smartphones in 2021.
As Harmony OS version 2 was released as a beta version in December 2020, it could be installed on smartphones, and the foreign press actually reviewed Harmony OS. However, some Huawei smartphones in China can transition to Harmony OS as a kind of closed beta, but it is said that it is quite difficult to access Harmony OS itself abroad.
In order to test the HarmonyOS software development kit abroad, you must first create an account with Huawei.com and send your name, address, email address, phone number, passport photo, and credit card photo. It takes one to two days for Huawei to manually review the applicant and receive the SDK.
This series of processes is more complex and time-consuming than Android or iOS, and Harmony OS potential developers point out that they may get tired of the cumbersome process and return to Android or iOS development. This is the worst operating system I’ve seen so far.
Once you’ve done the procedure somehow, you’ll barely have access to the HarmonyOS SDK, but HarmonyOS’s competitor is said to have been a remote emulator over the Internet, rather than something that could be run locally. If you enable USB debugging in the emulator, the entire emulator stops, so you use a real smartphone connected to the emulator test equipment.
If you look at the system application information screen, many Android system apps (Android Services Library, Android Shared Library, com.Android.systemui.overlay, Androidhwext, etc.) are found. In addition, it is said that, in addition to replacing Android with Harmony OS, many apps have been found, and Harmony OS contains many Android system components.
Also, if you look at the Harmony OS system app information, it is said that Harmony OS is not only marked with the same shape system icon as Android, but also version 2 but version 10. It is believed that this is because Harmony OS is an Android 10 based operating system.
Experts spent hours researching HarmonyOS, but couldn’t find any real changes compared to Android. Fire OS installed on Amazon Kindle is also a forked version of Android, but Amazon clearly acknowledges this. This expert argues that Huawei should also explain that Harmony OS is a fork of Android.
In addition, Huawei smartphones equipped with Harmony OS, scheduled to be released in 2021, are expected to ship without problems as long as Harmony OS is practically a fork of Android. Related information can be found here.