Not an Android replacement
Reports suggest that Harmony OS is expected to have improved cross-platform capabilities. This will help to meet the consumers’ demand for low latency and robust security. Huawei developers have been working on it for at least two years now. Many industry experts speculate it to be the company’s backup plan to replace Android in its smartphones and tablets in case the US imposed stricter trade restrictions. The open-source operating system is currently based on Linux and will be compatible with Android apps. It has also been designed to work across devices like wearables, VR smart glasses, smart speakers, in-car systems, and PCs. However, there remains a lot of confusion over its use in the company’s smartphones.
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Richard Yu, CEO, Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, claimed that Harmony OS is faster and safer than Android. He also confirmed that the company can use its own operating system in the future for its smartphones. But, a PR representative of the firm has tweeted, “If you are going to talk about #HarmonyOS please don’t call it a replacement for #Android. It’s an OS with a bigger vision. To simply it’s an OS for IoT products like #HONORVision and we at HONOR are 100% committed to android for smartphones. (Sic)”
Features of Harmony OS
Harmony OS is a microkernel-based operating system. With a distributed design, it will allow easy app development and flexible deployment on various devices. The Chinese firm asserted that the use of microkernel will reduce security risks associated with multi-device interconnection and claimed that the products can achieve an EAL 5+ certification level using its operating system. Harmony OS will also use a ‘deterministic latency engine’, which will lead to a 25.7% improvement in response latency and 55.6% improvement in latency fluctuation. The ecosystem of apps is potentially the biggest hurdle for the Huawei Harmony OS. Thus, the company is developing its own AppGallery platform as an alternative to the Google Play Store. It has already unveiled Huawei Mobile Services as an alternative to Google Play Services and might switch to Harmony OS for its new devices. Huawei has also announced to open-source Harmony OS for collaborations. This will provide an Integrated Development Environment to support app development across devices, including televisions, car kits, smartphones, etc. The IDE is reported to automatically adapt to varied screen layouts, controls, and interactions. It will also support drag-and-drop operations and preview-oriented visual programming. Moreover, it will not require root access to operate unlike Android and other Linux-based operating systems to reduce the security risks.
