Despite facing numerous challenges, Huawei continues to maintain its presence in the smartphone market. In fact, the company has not only maintained its position but is also experiencing a revival with recent strategic moves. For example, the Mate 60 series has outperformed even the iPhone 15 in its home market of China, and the company has also announced its intention to permanently transition from Android to its own HarmonyOS Next operating system. However, this shift away from Android has caused some confusion among users, particularly those outside of China. Fortunately, Huawei has recently assured its global users that they will still be able to install Android apps on their Huawei phones. Here are the details…

Huawei’s HarmonyOS Shift Doesn’t Affect Global Android Users

Huawei’s newly introduced HarmonyOS Next marks a groundbreaking shift in the company’s operating system strategy. Unlike its predecessor, HarmonyOS Next is not built upon the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) but rather developed from the ground up. This significant change, however, comes with a crucial implication: users of HarmonyOS Next will no longer be able to install Android applications in APK format. Even if these apps are somehow installed, they will not function properly.

HarmonyOS Next

The issue is that Huawei users outside of China thought they would also be affected by this problem, but it turns out that only Huawei users in China will be using the new operating system, so they won’t have to worry about it. Users that outside of China will still be able to use Android-based applications through the EMUI operating system. So, there’s no need to worry about this issue affecting your device. Here’s Huawei official statement on the matter:

“HarmonyOS operating system is designed to meet the needs of the Internet of Everything (IoE) era. It provides a shared language that enables a smart and connected experience across different devices. HarmonyOS 4 has been installed on over 100 million devices in a short period of around three months, catering to these capabilities. However, there is currently no plan for the distribution of HarmonyOS for devices outside of China. Consequently, Huawei users outside of China will continue using their usual Android-based applications with the EMUI operating system.”

RELATED:

(via)