The Huawei Developer Conference kicked off today and the Chinese giant has unveiled a brand new OS called HarmonyOS. HarmonyOS, unlike other major operating systems, is designed to work on every device thanks to it being micro-kernel based.
HarmonyOS will not only work on smartphones but will also work on TVs, tablets, smart speakers, wireless earbuds, smartwatches, PCs, VR glasses, and even in cars. Huawei’s Chief Executive Officer, Richard Yu, says the OS is designed to work on devices with RAM sizes ranging from kilobytes to gigabytes.
HarmonyOS is the first microkernel-based distributed OS for all scenarios – Richard Yu, HDC 2019
HarmonyOS will support a wide range of apps including Android, Linux, and HTML5 in the future. The new operating system uses Huawei’s ARK compiler and will support Kotlin, Java, Javascript, C, and C++ programming languages. It will also have a verified Trusted Execution Environment for a better connected security across multiple devices.
A modularized #HarmonyOS can be nested to adapt flexibly to any device to create a seamless cross-device experience. Developed via the distributed capability kit, it builds the foundation of a shared developer ecosystem #HDC2019 pic.twitter.com/2TD9cgtdG8
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) August 9, 2019
Huawei said it began working on the OS back in 2017. It is currently in version 1.0 with Version 2.0 scheduled for launch next year and version 3.0 planned for 2021. We should also see it appear on PCs next year and on VR headsets in 2022.
HarmonyOS will debut tomorrow on the Honor TV. It will not appear on phones yet as Huawei says it is still sticking to Android. However, they said switching to HarmonyOS can be done already and should take between 1 to 2 days.
