Can Harmony OS Next be a genuine Android alternative now?

From next year, HUAWEI is officially done with Android. Harmony OS Next will roll out to the company’s new Mate 70 and Mate X6 series in 2025, and the first handsets will ship exclusively with the OS the same year, transitioning HUAWEI’s phones to an Android-free experience for the very first time.

Following the HUAWEI US trade ban, the company continued its Android development into a forked version of its EMUI skin and kickstarted its self-developed Harmony OS for some of its smartphones and other products. Despite the hurdles, HUAWEI’s global smartphones continue to ship with Android to benefit from the huge range of apps developed for the platform, even if you had to install them through HUAWEI’s store, track down APKs, or hope your favorite app had a web app instead.

Even so, without Google apps and services, the EMUI experience has long felt half-baked. It was forked from an older version of Android, and even if you could source some of your cherished apps, banking and other apps that leverage Google security APIs didn’t work. HUAWEI was also awkwardly bridging the gap between Android for phones and OpenHarmony for other devices, leaving its grander plans in no man’s land.

Ultimately, HUAWEI has decided that legacy support for Android isn’t worth the hassle anymore, and a complete breakaway might yield better results. But is that true? HUAWEI certainly wouldn’t be the first to step out with their own Linux-based OS, but you’d hardly call Samsung’s Tizen, Jolla’s Sailfish, or Ubuntu Touch household names. Still, perhaps HUAWEI can do things differently. Let’s examine the obstacles that remain and the potential perks of starting a brand-new OS adventure.

A life without Android apps

From a user perspective, perhaps the most significant consumer-facing change with the move to Harmony OS Next will be the app situation. With the AOSP and associated API compatibility layers removed, new and existing apps will have to be rewritten to work on the new OS. In much the same way that developers have to build their apps for Android or iOS, developers will need to build for Harmony OS Next to integrate with the OS’ different UI, service, media, notification, location, and other frameworks.

This means users will only be able to use apps explicitly built for HarmonyOS Next when updating their phone to the new OS or buying a phone with it pre-installed. How HUAWEI handles that transition when moving to the new OS will be key. Failure to successfully copy over old apps and data could cause a lot of frustration, as consumers expect things to just work. Switchers are almost certain to run into issues where at least one of their favorite apps isn’t built for Next yet.

At least HUAWEI has already covered the basics, such as calculators, maps, and photo management, and is working with developers to port 4,000 of China’s most 5,000 popular apps to the platform. Next will have some foundations to start with, and it probably can’t be much more frustrating than the current half-in, half-out Android setup.

For developers, apps for Harmony OS Next will have to use the new ArkUI framework, which is based on ArkTS. ArkTS is a superset of TypeScript, which is itself a superset of Javascript. HUAWEI’s developer documentation notes that projects already adhering to the best TypeScript practices can keep 90% to 97% of their codebase intact. That sounds promising. However, the native Android UI framework uses Java and Kotlin, while iOS has SwiftUI, so direct porting is not possible.

Of course, cross-platform development is a big market these days, and TypeScript is commonly used to expedite development across OSs. Developers regularly use the TypeScript language within React Native, for example, allowing for simplified development across platforms. Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft Office, Amazon Alexa, Airbnb, UberEATS, and plenty of other apps use React Native. React Native developers will have an easier time switching to ArkTS, and its declarative approach will feel pretty familiar to SwiftUI developers, too. Web app developers will also be familiar with this setup, which plays to China’s fondness for mini web-based apps often found inside WeChat. Clearly, HUAWEI’s time spent trying to leverage cross-platform development has informed its thinking for Next.

That said, there are OpenHarmony-specific extensions to ArkTS that will feel different no matter what. HUAWEI’s new OS is designed to run across different hardware platforms with tighter integration and a more modular approach to compatibility. So, there are platform-specific APIs to learn, just like using the Android SDK or iOS SDKs, to build apps that interact with device hardware and system services.

It’s certainly going to take a while for HarmonyOS Next to have anywhere near the developer mind presence that Android and iOS command, but HUAWEI has made some sensible choices that should help ease that transition for developers.

A chance to reinvent the wheel

One of the bigger changes tucked deep down in HarmonyOS Next is the switch to its own microkernel to power it, breaking further with Android and its Linux foundations. What makes HarmonyOS Next’s microkernel approach quite interesting is that it is very lightweight. Thus, the same microkernel can be used on powerhouse smartphones and low-power wearables or IoT devices. Various Android platforms, from automotive to wearables, share the same monolithic kernel, but it has to be optimized for the specific platform.

To understand the difference, Android and Linux drivers, file management, network stack, and other core elements are part of the kernel. This is good for performance as there’s minimal overhead communicating between these parts, but it’s less modular in terms of extending the platform and adding new features for a specific product segment. A microkernel separates these out, running some typically lower-level features in the user space. This is good for security and stability and makes the OS more modular by reducing hardware dependencies, but it comes at the cost of extra overhead. Instead, the microkernel only shares basic memory mapping, task scheduling, and interprocess communication tools across devices.

Why does this matter? Well, HUAWEI’s HarmonyOS Next is designed to run on laptops, smartphones, TVs, wearables, and various smart home appliances. The microkernel approach paired with ArkUI means that iterating and innovating across these products with tight, cross-product integration at the app level can be done quickly if developers are prepared to invest the time. Essentially, this is HUAWEI’s play to power vast swathes of the technology ecosystem, an important step when you consider that Android Auto, Google TV, Wear OS, et al. are out of the picture too.

HarmonyOS Next also includes native integrations for HUAWEI’s PanGu-Σ large language mode, which can scale from embedded platforms up to cloud computing implementations. It also supports the open-source MindSpore deep learning training/inference framework. As such, HUAWEI is looking to shore up the platform with AI capabilities that we’re increasingly familiar with in Western products.

This isn’t to say that Harmony OS Next is a golden ticket for HUAWEI. Even with some seemingly sensible design choices on paper, it has to convince developers that its platform is worth investing in over the numerous tools and platforms already out there. Without developers, consumers will surely snub it’s comparatively small software selection.

Can Harmony OS make it outside of China?

The big question is whether HUAWEI can entice developers to adopt its framework alongside the bigger Android and iOS platforms. After all, it’s only worth developing an app for a broad user base, and this is where other Linux-based Android rivals have all fallen short. Even the Samsung-backed Tizen, a much earlier cross-platform initiative, has ended up mostly relegated to the brand’s own TV sets despite flirting as an alternative to several Google-backed Android options. Still, HarmonyOS Next is debuting in China, where the company claims about a quarter of the smartphone market, alongside Apple, while other Android brands split the remaining half.

That’s enough to hold some significant sway, but not all of HUAWEI’s existing customers will end up on Harmony any time soon. In the short term, the incentive remains small, but having the Chinese government in its corner might help crack that chicken-and-egg situation. Eventually, it could become the preferred OS of choice in China, but even that’s not going to happen quickly, at least not without external influence to help steer consumers away from Android, which holds by far the most significant share of the market.

The situation outside of China will be much, much harder to crack, as Android and iOS have a firm grip on the markets and are very much tied to the broader services that consumers rely on. Payment options, preferred app stores, and existing brand loyalties won’t be so easily parted with, and that’s before considering the fallout from the trade embargo and security rumors. HUAWEI struggled to crack these problems before, and Next doesn’t automatically solve the software problem. If anything, moving away from Android might make it harder to bring Western developers to the table.

HUAWEI AppGallery and the lack of Google APIs and tools remain a hindrance if the brand turns its sights outside of China. It’s not a given that HUAWEI can convert the Chinese market away from Android behemoths OPPO and Xiaomi. If HarmonyOS Next does find a home in Western markets, my guess is it’ll be in the form of IoT goods first.