We thought we had reached equilibrium in the world of smartphone operating systems. There was no expectation of a nightmare where Tizen, Symbian, or Windows phones would rise from the grave and attempt to usurp the throne from the only two real players left. Life seemed simple and uncomplicated.
Until now. Huawei, having been banished from enjoying the full amenities of the land of Android, decided to build its own kingdom: HarmonyOS Next. This is a completely new operating system, with no Android DNA, and it was just launched in China (with global plans). The question is, will it make it?
HarmonyOS Next Is Finally Official, Marking The First New Major Smartphone OS In A Long Time
You might not realize it yet, but this is a historical moment, whether it ends as a success or not. Over the last few years, Huawei has taken its mishaps with the US government in stride, and some might argue it is better off for it. Huawei has just released HarmonyOS Next—an evolution of its HarmonyOS platform, but this time, completely devoid of anything Android.
Huawei plans to roll out its new operating system to some of its already-released smartphones (though the Mate XT Ultimate doesn’t show up on that roadmap), as well as upcoming ones. But it’s not just smartphones. The company has plans to bring HarmonyOS Next to its foldables, tablets, wearables, smart home devices, and even inside cars.
HarmonyOS Next’s Ark Engine Brings Performance Improvements Compared To HarmonyOS
Huawei might have taken on the monumental task of building its own mobile operating system from scratch, but that seems to have come with the advantage of a lot of optimizations.
Apparently, when it comes to the fluidity of the operating system UI, the company claims a 30% improvement, though I do wonder exactly how fluidity is measured in this regard. However, other objective markers improve as well, such as 20% less power consumption which seems to lead to nearly a full hour more battery life. The new OS also seems optimized to the point where there’s now 1.5GB less RAM being used by the system.
All of this should translate to a more enjoyable experience when using the operating system, though I’ll be waiting to see the actual real-world tests.
Many Other Cool Features Are Added To The Mix
Of course, the numbers are one thing, but the actual features that make this operating system different are another.
First off, the fact that Huawei wants to build a unified ecosystem across all its devices is what makes Huawei Share 2.0 work so well. You’re able to share files between HarmonyOS Next devices extremely fast—that’s 1.2GB in just 8 seconds level of fast. Plus, streaming videos on a larger screen or transferring content to view on your other devices will be made seamless.
There’s also the Star Shield security architecture, which makes sure that apps can only access the data they’re specifically permitted to and uses permissions to protect your privacy. you can also monitor which data your apps access.
Xiaoyi AI Assistant Brings The Usual Mobile AI Assistant Magic
If Huawei didn’t bring a new custom-built AI assistant with its custom-built OS, it’d be a clear indicator that they’re not paying attention to the trends. Fortunately, they understood the assignment, as the kids say.
Xiaoyi, the AI assistant that comes with HarmonyOS Next, can be activated from the navigation bar or using voice commands and comes with the usual suite of features we expect.
Using Xiaoyi, you can retouch images and remove unwanted objects, get recordings transcribed and summarized, and get texts and images analyzed. Xiaoyi will also be able to understand what’s on your screen, which helps a lot with answering questions based on context.
Will HarmonyOS Next Be Able To Make A Breakthrough Though?
For more than a decade now, Android and iOS are the two mobile operating systems that almost everyone around the world has been using. A third player is coming in and it begs the question as to whether it’ll be able to get a foothold or whether it’ll just end up dying.
Well, it is starting off in China, and considering Chinese people never stopped loving Huawei even through the sanctions that affected the parts of the world that care about Google services, I think it’ll make it through. Huawei has made sure that 15,000 apps and services are supported on the OS at launch, which certainly helps the cause.
Huawei plans to expand HarmonyOS Next to an international audience at some point in the future, but its success at that point will primarily depend now whether it has support for all the apps the average global user cares about. If HarmonyOS Next simply can’t get Google services on its platform, I doubt it’ll overtake Android or iOS, but that third-place spot might be there for the taking.
