Chinese smartphone maker Huawei is set to roll out its Google’s Android competitor platform, Harmony OS, today. The operating system was first unveiled after the United States’ trade ban led Google to withdraw Huawei’s Android license last year.
The operating system is set to roll out to the company’s device today, on devices across Asia.
HarmonyOS 1.0 was announced in August 2019, and was first used by Huawei smart TVs for the Chinese market. HarmonyOS 2.0 was then announced in September 2020, and beta versions were available for selected Huawei smartphones from December 2020.
Huawei gadgets have been cut off from updating Google’s Android operating system since August, following a series of U.S. sanctions against the Shenzhen-based company. The ban also cost Huawei access to the U.S. company’s package of smartphone software known as Google Mobile Services, used widely across the industry.
Huawei claimed that HarmonyOS is a microkernel-based, distributed OS that is completely different from Android and iOS. However, it was later revealed that HarmonyOS 1.0 was based on Android 9 Pie, and supported Android Debug Bridge.
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