With the US ban on Huawei now entering its third year, the company is still cut off from the most important parts of Android. Today, Huawei confirmed its plan to officially unveil HarmonyOS to the world next week.
A teaser video posted to YouTube today confirms a big announcement from Huawei about its HarmonyOS platform coming on June 2. More importantly, it comes with the tease of “New Products” arriving alongside the operating system.
In the video’s description, Huawei simply says:
It’s nearly time to find out more about HarmonyOS.
Details remain unclear on exactly what the company plans to show off, but it seems likely this event will finally show, in detail, what HarmonyOS will look like on smartphones, TVs, and other devices. At least, officially.
ArsTechnica previously did a deep dive on the platform’s preview, finding that it was quite literally a carbon copy of Android, even pulling elements from AOSP. To quote Ron Amadeo from that piece:
The phrase “fake it till you make it” is often given as motivational advice, but I’ve never seen it applied to OS development before. If you’ve ever seen a modern Huawei Android phone, HarmonyOS is largely the same thing… with a few strings changed.
In August 2019, Huawei claimed that HarmonyOS wasn’t an “immediate” replacement for Android. Two years later, though, it really seems like that has changed.
Update: In an email interchange, Huawei expressed that HarmonyOS is not a “clone” of Android, teasing an “all-new UI” that was not present in the developer preview referenced above.
More on Huawei:
- Huawei Mate 40 Pro review: Hot hardware with added software shenanigans [Video]
- Huawei reportedly trying to sell off its premium smartphone brands
- Huawei’s new Mate X2 foldable works like a Galaxy Fold, costs nearly $3,000
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