The clock is ticking for Huawei and in less than two months, it will officially be blocked from installing Google’s software on future devices. Not unless Google and Huawei are able to convince the US government otherwise, of course. With the stakes that high, Huawei was repeatedly been reported to be preparing a Plan B operating system for its future phones.
While the ARK OS that has been mentioned in the past may still be based on Android, a new report suggests that Huawei is also looking into using a Russian-made version of Jolla’s Sailfish OS. Aurora OS is a Russian-made mobile operating system based on the open-source Sailfish OS Linux distribution developed by Finnish company Jolla.
Sailfish isn’t the most popular mobile operating system out there; in fact, it doesn’t show up on the radar of Android versus iOS. However, its focus on privacy and security has won over many users. Based on Nokia’s and Intel’s aborted MeeGo OS, Sailfish uses an almost completely different software stack. To date, very few commercially available phones have shipped with Sailfish OS.
Huawei is allegedly already testing Aurora on a few of its devices. Switching to a non-Android OS would be a risky move, though, considering how important app support is for the average consumer. That’s why we’re seeing Huawei reach out to app developers to publish on its AppGallery app store, and why the company is exploring Aptoide as a Play Store alternative. Completely foregoing Android is likely a last resort for the company.
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