Huawei has just changed its mind and decided to push its HarmonyOS to the rest of the world. A challenger for iOS and Android would be nice, but is it possible?
Huawei has problems that are not technical but political. In 2019, it was forced to launch its own phone operating system after US sanctions blocked it from accessing Android, despite it being open source. The result was Harmony OS which quickly grew into a jungle of different versions. Despite this, we thought it might have a chance of disrupting the current situation, a prospect quickly dissipated as Huawei said it had no plans to create phones for use outside of China, based on Harmony OS.
Now that has changed.
President Eric Xu told attendees at his 21st Analyst Summit in Shenzhen that he was ready to expand Harmony OS to the rest of the world. Additionally, the latest version of Harmony OS, Harmony Next, would have no compatibility with Android, requiring the 5,000 most used apps to be ported to the new operating system. These apps account for 99% of Chinese users’ time and when and if the conversion is complete and proves effective, Harmony OS is certainly a viable alternative – in China.
To be accepted elsewhere will require some cooperation from developers around the world and that’s what Huawei expects.
This is especially important since Huawei recently launched a phone, the Mate 60, which became the best-selling device in China, surpassing both the iPhone and Android. Note, however, that these devices are compatible with Android apps, even if you need to sideload something that’s not in the Huawei app store. Harmony Next is therefore truly a new beginning.
So what is it like to work with Harmony Next OS.
This question is not particularly easy to answer because the operating system is still in developer version and will not be released until the end of the year. But there is something to be said that gives you the general idea.
It is programmed in Java, like Android, and not Kotlin. It also has its own IDE, DevECO Studio, based on IntelliJ. This might be good news, because bloated and poorly designed Android Studio is something some Android programmers would be happy to see behind.
You also need to register to become a Huawei developer. It has two tiers – individual and business – and there appear to be no fees associated with it, but you do need to provide proof of identity. This brings us to the question of trust. Huawei is still under US sanctions and other countries view it as untrustworthy. Does this affect your decision to develop applications on the platform?
When it comes to application programming, the user interface is based on ArkUI which started as an imperative framework to use with Java. The latest is a declarative framework that uses ArkTS, a TypeScript/JavaScript type language. It seems that by the time we reach Harmony Next, development best practices could have evolved to something like iOS and MAD on Android.
One thing that is quite obvious is that porting existing applications to Harmony will not be automatic and it seems to me that starting over is a better option. This of course begs the question why did they abandon Android compatibility? I have to admit that I don’t see a good reason for this, unless it’s some sort of long term planning to go it alone.
Finally, it should be noted that there is a big gap between the first use of Harmony, reserved for the Chinese market, and the current desire to make it a global OS? Is it too late or is timing not important in this context?
And I think my slight enthusiasm for the project has more to do with my dissatisfaction with the current mess that is Android and the walled garden that is iOS, than with the merits of Harmony itself.
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Huawei HarmonyOS developer push
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