Huawei has announced a new version of HarmonyOS, which will be available on the brand's smartphones from 2021. This was announced during an online presentation; the recording of the event is available on the company's YouTube channel.
The new version of the operating system was called HarmonyOS 2.0, the software was presented at the Huawei Developer Conference. In 2021, the operating system will be fully deployed on the brand's smartphones. In particular, from April to October, developers will be testing a replacement for Android, and a beta version of HarmonyOS will appear in December 2021. OS release dates may be shifted.
According to the head of the company Richard Yu (Richard Yu), HarmonyOS 2.0 applications will be universal for all supported devices. The system will adapt the program interface to a specific type of platform. Yu also named one of the main features of the new product – full synchronization between all devices in the ecosystem and data transfer via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
A development kit (SDK) for smart TVs, smartwatches and car computers will be available in September, with a smartphone version coming in December. In particular, on September 10, HarmonyOS can be launched in test mode on devices with RAM from 128 kilobytes to 128 megabytes, in April 2021 support for devices with up to four gigabytes of RAM will be available, in October – devices with four gigabytes of memory and above. Also in December 2020, OS documentation will be open to developers.
It is clarified that at the first stage of deployment, HarmonyOS 2.0 will not replace Android, but will be distributed as an alternative operating system. The first version of HarmonyOS was introduced in August 2019.
Earlier, Huawei's top manager Yu Chengdong said that the deployment of HarmonyOS on the company's smartphones will definitely take place no earlier than 2021. The Chinese corporation will continue to prioritize Google's OS, and its own operating system will be viewed as a fallback.
