Mise à jour du 01/10/2021 - D'après IT Home News, HarmonyOS 3.0 pourrait être dévoilé le 24 octobre prochain, date à laquelle Huawei a organisé une conférence de presse pour les développeurs, la Huawei Developer Conference. Nous amenderons notre article quand nous en serons davantage sur cette mise jour.
At its June 2nd conference, Huawei focused on its in-house OS that will soon animate its product ecosystem. We were able to test it on the latest components during a short demonstration session.
HarmonyOS: what is it?
Huawei formalized its operating system in August 2019, but it was not yet a credible alternative to Android. Pressed by U.S. sanctions, the company, forced to compose without Google Mobile Services (GMS) and dispossessed of its Android license, has accelerated the development of its in-house OS and Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) in order to present a solution ready to integrate all the products of its ecosystem. Huawei Vision opened in 2019 when Honor was still a Huawei subsidiary. From now on, HarmonyOS in version 2.0 is about to cover the entire ecosystem of the company except the world of PC, which should continue to evolve under Windows.
Based on the findings of the ARS Technica teams who dissected the source code of HarmonyOS 2.0, this system would be based on AOSP (Android open source Project). Like Amazon Fire OS, it would be an Android fork. Its interface is therefore similar to that of an overlayer grafted onto Google's OS. Existing Android apps work on devices equipped with the platform. The manufacturer intends to make a gradual transition to HarmonyOS and would have received the commitment of 4 million developers to design applications dedicated to its operating system. At present, more than 134,000 applications run fully with HMS.
HarmonyOS is a very clear reality in China since it was shaped by an ecosystem born in 2019. In France and Europe, this is a completely different story, but the introduction of products evolving under this OS could allow the brand to popularize it.
What's that look like?
We were able to experiment briefly harmonyOS 2.0 a few days ago. As stated above, this is a multiplatform OS designed to work on all the products that make up and will compose the ecosystem of the brand, with the exception of PCs.
During its event on June 2, Huawei presented harmonyOS 2.0 on smartphone. An overview of the interface of the future P50 in short. The control center, modelled on the iPhone, allows you to quickly see the different objects that are connected together from a panel located just below the quick settings and shortcuts. The control center, modelled on the iPhone, allows you to quickly see the different objects that are connected together from a panel just below the quick settings and shortcuts.
The smartphone, the tablet, the PC, but also the TV can take on the role of "Super Terminal", the one that gives you the possibility to interact with all devices. Huawei effectively eliminates all applications to pawn an object and manage its connection. If you listen to music from your smartphone, for example, you can transfer it to a speaker, headphones, headphones or television just by moving its icon to the icon of the device in question. In the same way, a drag and drop will allow you to continue on your TV a film started on your smartphone. If you own a smartphone and tablet on harmonyOS, you can transfer your data and activities from one device to another. Huawei's partners will also be able to offer products compatible with harmonyOS devices via the HiLink protocol. HiLink currently has 600 brands, 3,000 products and 50 million uses worldwide. Huawei upgraded to HarmonyOS connect and the certification program for the 600 partners started last May. Certified brands include Bosch and Siemens.
Widgets are also in the game and Huawei insisted on the many customization options. They are available on smartphone, but also on tablet, watch and TV.
The OS takes several forms depending on the type of device on which it is installed. On the Huawei Watch 3 and Watch 3 Pro, HarmonyOS uses watchOS codes. While a vertical scroll was required by previous generations to access their functionality, these new models display in a grid all applications pre-installed or uploaded to the app Gallery.
Huawei's latest tablets, namely the MatePad 11 and MatePad Pro 2021, run under HarmonyOS 2.0 and again, the look of the interface is reminiscent of an Apple OS, in this case iPadOS. So we find a dock that brings together the favorite applications.
Compatible devices and update release date
The products presented by Huawei during its event on June 2, namely the Huawei Watch 3 and Watch 3 Pro, as well as the MatePad 11 and MatePad Pro 2021, run under HarmonyOS 2.0.
Huawei also provided a list of smartphones and tablets that will be updated to HarmonyOS 2.0. But be careful, only the Chinese market is concerned at the moment.