Huawei has been working on an alternative to Android called HarmonyOS for a number of years. We’ve already seen a developer version in China for the past few months, but it looks like Huawei is ready to launch the new mobile platform.
The Chinese manufacturer has published a video on its HarmonyOS Weibo account confirming the launch date on June 2, 2021 at 8 p.m. GMT + 8 a.m. (8 a.m. CET). It’s unclear if this is a China-only launch or a global event.
Early impressions of the developer preview have so far painted a mixed picture of HarmonyOS Ars Technica Previously it was reported that the preview was literally Android 10 with EMUI and some other improvements. So we hope this was just a prelude to the real deal and not an old platform masquerading as the new one.
Even so, Huawei has promised that HarmonyOS will offer more seamless cross-device capabilities (such as using a TV and webcam for a video class and a tablet for additional material), an adaptive user interface, and faster cross-device data transfers.
We won’t have to wait long to see a fully baked version of HarmonyOS on smart devices, but hopefully the platform will hit wider markets in no time too.